


I will stay Determined

by Dakarima



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-10
Updated: 2018-12-10
Packaged: 2019-08-30 01:45:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 26,083
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16755502
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dakarima/pseuds/Dakarima
Summary: Humans and monsters have lived in harmony for a long time. After the human king and queen were overthrown by the monsters, a rebellious clan was made to fight against them and claim revenge for their fallen leaders. Elle is part of the clan Artbitrium, who fight against the royal family Dreemurr and the authority of the Gaster brothers. Her main goal is not to take down the royal family, but rather seek revenge for her mother who were killed many years ago.





	1. Frisk's timeline

_Frisk_ _was_ _wandering_ _down_ _the_ _forest_ _with_ _her_ _mother and father_ _a_ _few_ _feet_ _behind_ _her. It was a warm spring day. The sun was high and just a few clouds could be seen in the distance. The flowers were blooming and trees were dancing in the chill wind. It was such a calm day, Frisk could hear the river run down stream. She was wearing a golden flower crown that her mother had made to her._

_Frisk was lost in her own imagination as she walked down the path in the forest. She was dreaming that she was a princess in a magical forest. She imagined a deer walk next to her, with flowers growing from its_ _antlers_ _. She was talking with the deer, but no real words came out of her mouth, only mumbling._

_“Frisk, we’ll take a small break here, don’t wander too far.” Her father yelled at her from behind. She_ _stopped_ _and turned around to look at her father. She waved at him and both her parents waved back. She noticed her_ _deer_ _friend had ran off into the forest._

_“I’ll be right back, mommy! My friend ran off into the forest over there.” She said and pointed into the forest._

_“Okay, but don’t run too far, we’ll be heading back home soon.” Frisk’s mother yelled back. Frisk_ _nodded_ _and turned around. She walked into the forest until she couldn’t see her parents_ _anymore. She yelled after her friend and saw it pass between some trees. She giggled and ran after it._

_“Come back, silly. We're heading home soon.” She laughed as she ran_ _in between_ _trees. As she passed a couple of_ _trees,_ _she saw a big hole in the ground._ _It_ _was as wide as her house. She walked to the edge and looked down. Complete darkness and no bottom to see._

_Elle heard a few branches break behind her and she turned around. It was her friend and Frisk smiled. “There you are! Let's go back to mom and dad, we’re heading home soon.” She said and the deer took a step forward. Frisk tilted her head and the deer suddenly started to run towards her. Frisk froze in her place, not knowing what to do. It ran forward and pushed her off the edge. It felt like time went slowly as she was falling into the hole. She saw her friend turn into dust as she was swallowed by the darkness in the hole._

**Frisk was sitting in a dark room. There was no source of light, except a dim golden light emitting from her chest. She felt a slight pressure in her heart. She placed a hand on her chest and closed her eyes.** **_Elle._ **

_Frisk was wandering through a town covered in snow. The_ _inhabitants_ _were monsters of all shapes and sizes. Her mother had told stories about how they were sealed up long ago, and that they lived beneath our town. She was told they weren’t anything to be afraid of, except her father disagreed. In his mind, they were dangerous creatures made to destroy us humans. Frisk’s mother was one of very few that believed the monsters would never harm us, so Frisk had decided to believe the same._

_Now that Frisk was down here, she knew her mother had to be right, since none of the monsters had attacked her yet. She ha_ _d_ _even stopped to talk to some of them, and_ _they_ _had_ _all been very kind to her._

_As she walked through the small snowy town, she noticed a neatly decorated tree in the street. It_ _had_ _some gifts beneath it, wrapped in_ _colourful wrappings._ _It_ _reminded Frisk of C_ _hristmas_ _. When she walked up to what looked like an_ _ice bear_ _, she asked if they were celebrating Christmas. The bear said they called it_ _Giftmas_ _. Frisk looked closer on the gifts_ _underneath_ _the tree, and saw it was from_ _Santa_ _._

_Frisk continued wandering through the street of the town. Seeing the Christmas_ _tree,_ _she couldn’t help herself thinking of her family. An early memory of her unwrapping a gift from her parents; it was a horse plush, which Frisk called Opie. She would always keep it with her, carrying it around and sleep with it, and she hated it when her mother had to wash it._

_As Frisk continued her walk, she noticed a building with the letters GRILLBY’S written on it. Out of the door came a big skeleton out. He was wearing a blue sweater, black shorts, white socks and pink slippers. He had a big grin on his face._

_He glanced at Frisk as he walked the way Frisk was meaning to head. He stopped and turned around to look at Frisk. He walked over to her, kneeled making his bones pop and scanned her face. Frisk was only a kid, so she didn’t really know what to do. She just stood still and scanned the skeleton as well._

_The skeleton grinned wider and held out a hand to her. Her whole head could fit in his hand. She reached out her hand and he gently grabbed it. “Hi, I'm Sans, Sans the skeleton.” He smiled and shook her hand._

_Frisk just giggled and tried to shake back, but his hand was too heavy. “Hi, I'm Frisk, Frisk the human.” Sans let go of her hand and stood up._

_“Where are your parents, little one?” He asked and looked around._

_Frisk felt a hint of sadness. She didn’t realise until now that she had no way of getting_ _back_ _to her parents. The surroundings she had fallen into had made her forget about going back. “I fell down the hole, I don’t know where they are.” She felt tears form in her eyes._

_“Hey now, don’t cry. We'll find a way to get you back, but until then, I think it’s best that_ _uncle_ _Sans take care of you.” He smiled and patter her on her head. Frisk looked up at him with tears almost escaping her eyes._

_“Are you my uncle? I didn’t know I had one.” She said confused._

_“Well, I am now, so why don’t you come with me and we’ll get you inside. You must be hungry.” He_ _said_ _and bent down. Frisk nodded and dried away her tears. He lifted her up and let her sit on his shoulder as they walked down the street._

**Frisk felt the air was getting heavier to breathe. She opened her eyes and tried to look around. By her chest, she noticed some of the golden light was turning red. A jolt of pain stung her chest. She hit her head back to the wall with her eyes closed.** **_Elle, stay._ **

_Frisk was looking at herself in the mirror. She loved the new clothes Papyrus and sans had bought to her. The yellow summer dress reached to her knees. Since it wasn’t really cold in_ _Snowdin_ _, she could wear it with a white pantyhose and black shoes._

_She turned around to look at Sans sitting on the couch. She jumped excitedly as she thanked him. “Don’t forget to thank Papyrus as well.” He grinned. Frisk nodded and ran over to the kitchen. He was making his famous spaghetti which no one really liked, but ate_ _because_ _they loved him._

_“Pap, thank you for the dress.” She said and jumped excitedly. Papyrus turned around and his pink apron was covered in tomato sauce._

_“I’M GLAD YOU LIKE IT SO MUC, FRISK! NEXT TIME, PERHAPS YOU CAN JOIN US AND YOU CAN EVEN CHOOSE YOUR OWN DRESS.” He smiled widely and turned back to his paste making. Frisk jumped some more before running back to the living room._

_She jumped into the sofa and sat next to Sans. He was watching the news on the TV without sound on. Frisk looked at Sans with her head tilted. “Sans, why are you watching the news without sound?” She asked curiously._

_Sans just grinned and looked down at her. “I want to watch the news, but_ _they make so much noise I can’t be bothered to listen.” He_ _answered_ _._

_“Then how do you know what is going on?” She asked and looked at the TV. The_ _news anchor_ _was a lion in a dress. He had a picture of a group of children next to his head._

_“I just look at the pictures. Pictures say more than a thousand words.” He grinned and patted her on her head. Frisk was confused, but in some way it all made sense. They continued to watch the news together. Frisk had snuck herself close to sans, some way he was emitting warmth, which felt good to Frisk._

_“IT’S DINNER TIME!” Papyrus yells from the kitchen. Frisk jumped off the couch and looked at Sans. She grabbed his hand and she was just strong enough to pull it up. Sans groaned as he got himself up from the couch. Together they walked to the kitchen and sat down by the table._

_The spaghetti was a bit burnt, but everything else looked okay. Now she only had to eat it. Papyrus had already filled their plates with spaghetti, so Frisk couldn’t decide herself how much she was going to have._

_She grabbed the fork and filled it with paste. She placed it in her mouth and as the sauce hit her tongue, her face almost turned into a grimace. It tasted like burnt plastic. Frisk wanted to spit it out, but she made herself eat a few more_ _forks_ _before she_ _insisted,_ _she was full._

_“WAS IT GOOD FRISK?” Papyrus smiled widely and took a bit himself. Frisk just nodded, trying not to make another grimace as the taste lingered on her tongue. “I’M GLAD YOU LIKED IT. I THINK TOMORROW WE’LL HAVE SOMETHING ELSE. WHAT DID YOU HUMANS CALL IT, CLAMBURGER?”_

_“No Pap, it’s called HAM-burger.” Sans said and moved the spaghetti on his plate with his fork. He hadn’t even tasted it._

_“NYAHA! OF COURSE, HAMBURGER. FRISK, YOU MUST JOIN ME TO THE STORE TOMORROW TO BUY THE NECESARRY INGREDIANTS.” Papyrus said as he took a_ _mouthful_ _of pasta._

**Frisk felt her heart was trying to push out of her chest. Her heart was emitting fully red** **glowing** **smoke. She had never seen it do this before and she felt fear struck her. She heard footsteps in front of her. She could see red smoke faintly glow on the floor. The same red smoke coming from her chest.** **_Elle, stay determined._ **

_Frisk was laying on top of Sans on the couch. It was_ _mid-day_ _, Sans was sleeping and Frisk was watching the TV. She was watching a gameshow by_ _Mettaton_ _. Papyrus was with_ _Undyne_ _, practicing_ _cooking_ _with her. Frisk was finally starting to reach the height of Sans, still she was a few inches away._

_Frisk got off Sans and walked over to the kitchen. She opened the fridge. She forgot how ba_ _d_ _Sans and Papyrus was at_ _buying_ _groceries. Sometimes she washed they would do it once without her nagging them about it._

_She walked back to the living room and grabbed her jacket. She put it on and grabbed some gold from Sans’ wallet. “Guess I have to do everything myself.” She whispered and left the house. She walked the familiar street of_ _Snowdin_ _._

_Not much had changed throughout the years she_ _had_ _been down here. The monsters had just grown older and some had children. A few years_ _ago,_ _Frisk got to know the truth that she would forever be stuck down here, but at that point, it didn’t really matter to her. She had gotten used to being down here, and she had grown so fond of the_ _Snowdin_ _residents that she_ _didn't_ _really want to go back._

_She finally reached the shop and walked inside. It was only her, she_ _shopkeeper and an old female rabbit. Frisk grabbed a basket and started to walk around the shop, grabbing whatever she fancied or needed. She even bought some spaghetti, just to make Papyrus happy._

_She walked up to the front desk and placed the basket on top. “Why hello Frisk,_ _empty_ _fridge again?” The shopkeeper smiled._

_Frisk giggled. “You know it. They're just horrible at buying food, so someone has to keep me fed, and that’s me.” The shopkeeper laughed as well. “How are_ _business_ _going?” Frisk asked._

_“It’s going good, thank you for the tip of having a sale once in a while, it truly helps keeping this shop afloat.” She explained as she counted my wares and_ _putting_ _in numbers on her cash register._

_“I’m glad to hear that. If there’s more you need help with, please let me know.” Frisk smiled and started to pack her groceries._

_“I will. Now, let’s see. That will be 364 gold.” She said. Frisk found her purse and found the amount the cashier was asking for. “Thank you.” She smiled. “Need help getting those back homes?”_

_Frisk looked at the four bags of groceries_ _waiting_ _to be carried home. She wanted to say yes, but she was a stubborn girl as well. “No, I'll be fine. Thank you anyways.” Frisk said and grabbed the bags. She left the store and slowly made her way back home._

_She finally got the door open with her elbow. She knew just putting the bags down_ _would be easier, but she wasn’t raised to put those groceries down. She walked inside and as kicked the door shut behind her, the groceries suddenly felt light. She looked down and saw a blue glow around the bags. She looked over to the couch. Sans was_ _grinning widely with a blue eye. He stood up and walked over to the kitchen. Frisk let go of the bags and they floated over to the kitchen counter._

_“Thank_ _you, Sans_ _, but next time, please just join me to the store so I don’t have to carry them all the way as well.” Frisk said with her arms crossed._

_“Sorry, kid, was_ _asleep_ _.” He winked and Frisk shook her head. She walked to the kitchen as_ _well_ _and started to unpack the groceries. “So, planned dinner?” He asked and sat down by the kitchen table._

_“No, not really. I know you like my hamburger, so I can make that if you like. I guess Papyrus won’t be home for dinner anyways.”_ _She said as she put the dry food inside the cabinets._

_“Sounds good to me, or I can take you to_ _Grillby’s_ _.” Sans smirked. Frisk shook her head. She knew he only wanted to go there because of_ _Grillby’s_ _mustard, but Frisk had an ace up her sleeve._

_“Really?_ _So,_ _you don’t want my hamburger then?” Frisk asked and she placed her hand in the grocery bag. “Not MY burger and some delicious MUSTARD from GRILLBY’S.” She pulled out the mustard and turned_ _around_ _to let Sans have a glance at it. “You see, Sans, I know you better than you know yourself. Anytime Papyrus isn’t around, you run to_ _Grillby’s_ _._ _So,_ _I dropped by there on the way home to surprised you.” Frisk winked at Sans._

_Sans was stunned. He stared at the mustard in frisk’s hand and some drool escaped his mouth. “Well, since we got the perfect drink around, I guess we can make some food at home.” He tried to reach for it, but Frisk pulled it back to herself._

_“Nope! Not going to be that easy, Sans. If you want this, you need to clean up your socks from the living room as Papyrus asked you to do.” Frisk had an almost evil smirk on her lips. Putting Sans in these kinds of situations always made Frisk laugh. Frisk knew Sans was desperate enough to do anything for this mustard. “And before you think of running to_ _Grillby’s_ _, I've told him not to sell you anything until you’ve done this task.” Frisk couldn’t help herself from laughing._

_Sans sighed and stood up. “Alright, kid. You win this one.” He slowly started to walk toward the living room. Frisk nodded and placed the bottle on the counter. She continued to unpack the groceries._

**The footsteps came closer to Frisk. Her chest was so tight now, that she could barely breathe. She was staring right in front of her. The smoke got thicker. In the smoke, she saw the black shoes making the noise. They had stopped a few feet in front of her. She looked up, trying to see a face in the darkness. She saw a fain glow, but couldn’t make out what it was. The glow lowered and came closer. Her heart almost stopped.**

_Frisk was laying in her bed. She had been laying there for an hour now, not being able to fall_ _asleep_ _. She was home alone;_ _Papyrus on a mission with_ _Undyne_ _and Sans at_ _Grillby’s_ _. She never like it when she was home alone, the silence was too much. She could never get used to it._

_She got herself out of bed and put on a T-shirt. She walked downstairs and sat down in the couch. Since she couldn’t_ _sleep_ _, she could at least watch some TV. She turned the TV on and put on a late gameshow by_ _Mettaton_ _._

_The front door opened and Sans walked inside. He locked the door behind him and almost jumped when he saw Frisk was sitting in the couch. “Jesus, Frisk! You scared the skin off me.” He smirked and walked over to her. “Why are you still up?” He asked and looked down at her._

_Frisk looked up at him. “I just couldn’t sleep.” She explained. Sans sat down next to her and placed a hand behind her. She leaned closer to him and felt his warmth. His arm slowly fell down and his hand rested on her butt. Frisk didn’t really mind, and in some way,_ _it_ _felt good, especially when his thumb was stroking her slowly. “How was_ _grillby’s_ _?” Frisk asked._

_“It was good, as always. The mustard is still the best.” He grinned and glanced down at Frisk. “I even got a mustard on the house, which was nice.” He giggled and Frisk smiled._

_“Aren’t all of_ _your_ _mustards on the house?” Frisk asked, still the smile on her face._

_“True.” Sans answered and they both laughed. Frisk let out a small yawn. “Tired, huh?” He asked. Frisk nodded. “Let’s get you to bed then.” He stood up and lifted her up. Frisk sometimes thought Sans must have like to carry her, because he did it whenever he got the chance. Frisk was capable of walking to her bedroom herself, but since Sans had lifted her up before she could say anything, she just let him._

_He entered her room and started to walk to her bed. “You can just put me down_ _here_ _, Sans. It's ok.” Frisk said. Sans stopped and put her down. “Thank you.” She smiled. She gave him a hug before she walked to her bed. She heard Sans was leaving her room. As she reached the_ _bed,_ _she_ _pulled the T-shirt off and sat down at the bed._

_She looked up and saw Sans was standing by her door, staring at her. Frisk just sat there, staring back at him. “Sans?” She asked. Sans mouth was slightly opened. Frisk stood up and walked towards him. “You have seen a female body before, haven’t you Sans?”_

_Sans stood still and tried to look away from Frisk. “N-no,_ _never a human one_ _. Only seen what’s in_ _Alphys_ _’ manga.” He explained nervously. Frisk was right in front of him now. She grabbed his hand and placed it on her chest. “F-frisk,_ _wh_ _-what are you doing?” He asked without moving his hand away._

_“It’s okay, Sans. It's nothing to be scared of.” Frisk giggled._ _Frisk noticed a faint glow from Sans’ pants. She smiled widely and bit her lower lip. She stepped away from him. “Come.” She whispered and walked to her bed. Sans stood still for a moment. Frisk reached her bed and sat down. She looked at Sans and he started to walk towards her._

_When he reached her, she stood up_ _and_ _kissed his cheek. “Ever pleased a woman before?” She whispered. Sans nodded. “Then relax and please me.” She said and pulled his blue sweater off._

_Sans placed his hand on her butt and squeezed a little. “Don’t forget I like it rough.” She bit her lip, smiling. Sans stuck out his glowing blue tongue out and licked her neck. Frisk let out a small moan. She placed a hand on his groin. She_ _stroked_ _it a few times before she snuck her hand inside his pants. She could barely wrap her hand around it. As she touched it, Sans_ _groaned and squeezed her ass harder._

_“_ _You_ _sure you want this, Frisk?” Sans asked worried. Frisk took her hand out of his pants and laid down on her bed, spreading her legs wide. She massaged the outside of her panties and looked at him seductively. The glow in his pants grew brighter. Frisk knew exactly what she wanted and she was going to have it._

**“Very dirty, Frisk.” Sans leaned down towards Frisk. The pressure in her chest lightened and the red smoke from her** **chest** **disappeared. She took a few deep breathes.**

**“That wasn’t me and you know it.” Frisk growled. He had infiltrated her mind with his filthy thoughts.**

**“Did you like my little twist at the end? Simple alternate to the timeline.” He smirked. The red smoke was lighting up the room enough for them to see each other.**

**“You’re disgusting, Sans.” She spat out and stood up. How could he violate not** **only** **another timeline, but making her think of it? She couldn’t hide the fact that it had made her warm inside and even a little wet, but she definitely couldn’t let** **Sans know this. She was just happy that she broke out of it before anything more happened.**

**“Want to get back to the interrogation? Or do you want to continue where we left off?” He blew some smoke in her face with a big grin.**

**“Let’s just get this over with, Sans! I’m not interested in your disgusting games.” She crossed her arms and looked mad at him.**

**Sans put his hands up. “Alright,** **sweetie** **, let’s continue with the interview.”**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! So I really had NO IDEA where to put this chapter. I wanted it to be a part of the story, just to give a "taste" of another timeline. So I decided to put it as the first chapter, just to have some kind of introduction, and not a boring first chapter. Hope you guys enjoyed this writing, was kinda fun to write as well.


	2. The Loss

“I can’t fucking believe it, seven more lost!  **Fuck**!”John crumbled the paper in his hand and slammed his fists in the wooden table in front of him. He stayed there, twitching his arms.

Everyone in the room had their eyes on John. The room was completely silence, only the sound of the fan in the corner could be heard. The man who had delivered the paper to John was frozen. His face was covered in sweat and soon a drop would fall from his chin. It wasn’t unusual that John had a temper, but to see him this angry was a surprise to even those who had been around for a long time.

John took a deep breath and straightened up. He bent his head back and had his eyes closed. The silence was nice, but almost uncomfortable.

 _Do they expect something to happen?_  John thought, breathing slowly in and out. He opened his eyes and looked at the terrified man in front of him.  _This is not what I wanted from you_.

John let go of the paper and sighed. “I don’t want to see your face until you have some good news.” He snarled. The man gulped. he couldn’t move. “ **LEAVE**!” The man was so scared, that he fell backwards. In a panic he turned around on the floor, trying to pull himself up as he moved forward. He ran out of the room, leaving the door open behind him. John turned around to face the others in the room. “You can all leave.” He said as calmly as he could, even though they could all see traces of anger within him. The biggest clue was the vein by his left eye popping out, almost looking like it was going to explode. Everyone was starting to scurry out of the room, but as Elle was passing him, he grabbed her arm and pulled her to him. “Not you.” He whispered through his closed teeth.

As the room became empty and the last man had closed the door behind him, John finally let go of Elle. She took a step away from him before crossing her arms. John could see that she didn’t know why she was held back, but if John was going to be honest, he didn’t know either.

“What is it, boss?” Elle asked irritated. John hated when Elle called him boss, especially when they were alone, but he knew Elle didn’t like to use the term ‘dad’.

John pulled his hair back, feeling the dry wax almost peeling off as he drew his fingers through. He bit his lip, not really knowing what to say. How was he going to explain this? He took a deep breath. “Elle...” He stopped, he didn’t have the heart to tell her, but she would find out sooner or later.

 _Just tell her, she needs to know._  John felt his heart almost drop.  _How are you going to explain this, huh? She will hate you for this, she told you they weren’t ready. But god damn, we were all desperate. Fuck!_

“Elle... Christer and Emma have been captured.” He felt his heart beat faster as he said those words. Elle’s expression went from irritated, shocked, angry and then sad. She leaned back onto one of the tables in the room. Her eyes were about to be filled with tears. John was going to walk to her, but she held her hand up, stopping him.

“Don’t...” She slowly let her hand down, signalling to John that he was not to come any closer. She was clenching her fists and her jaw was shaking. She looked up at John with dark eyes. John could tell she wanted to kill him, or at least punch him in the face. “I... I told you...” She muttered. John could barely hear her. If it wasn’t for the silence, he wouldn’t hear a thing. “I fucking told you...” She said a little louder. Elle looked at her clenched fists and straightened her fingers out. Her hands were shaking. She looked up at John. A tear had escaped her eye, but she was angrier than sad. “I  **fucking**  told you they weren’t ready.  **I fucking told you!”** Elle yelled at him. She pushed herself up from the table and walked over to John’s desk. “How?” She asked, staring intently at him.

John had seen Elle mad before, but this flow of emotions was new to him. She would always go to her mother. Always when something was going on with Elle, her mother was always the solution, even for the smallest things, her mother would save the day. He remembered that one time when Elle’s mother wasn’t home and something had happened that needed her attention. John had offered to help, but he wasn’t good enough. Elle told him that she would just have to wait, so she would keep the problem with her until her mother returned. And as soon mom returned home, everything was fine. Just a simple hug from her mother was enough. John didn’t complain, but he did wish he had a bigger part of Elle’s life.

“They were ambushed on their post; most likely someone had told the authority about them. We have never had anyone being spotted at that sight, it’s impossible. The observation plan was bulletproof. I have no other explanation on how they got caught.” John explained. He was nervous of Elle not finding his answer satisfying enough. Christer and Emma were two of her closest friends, and they had all been training together since they were five years old, of course Elle started around when she was two, since she was the daughter of the leader.

Elle grabbed the paper on John’s desk. She started to read it.

[Mark of the authority]

This letter is to inform the leader of Arbitrium that, the 22nd of May, seven members, three women and four men, of their clan have been taken down and transported to the Amare facility where they will be executed for their crimes against our king and queen.

We will also inform you that all the prisoners will be tortured for information. Everything we find will be used to take you down.

There is still a possibility to save them all by surrendering the clan and yourself to the authority and end this foolish war. You are wasting many lives to fight for a cause not worth fighting for. We can come to an agreement if you would find that more suiting. Send a letter explaining what your terms are and send them with a Gyftrot to the main facility of Gaster jurisdiction.

Signed W. D. Gaster                         [Official stamp of Gaster authority]

John looked at Elle as she slowly placed the letter on his desk. She placed a hand over her mouth. “We have to get them.” Elle mouthed between her fingers. All John could hear was ‘We - get them’. John placed a hand on Elle’s shoulder, but she shrugged it off.

“Elle, we can’t save them. They are out of reach now.” He tried to explain. Elle gave John a look of disapproval. She removed her hand from her mouth and took a step back.

“This is so you, you have always backed out when someone needs your help. Never been there to save anyone, not even mom.” John felt a stung in his chest, but it was quickly supressed by the anger filling him.

He slammed his fist in the wooden table. “How dare you say that?! I have always been there for both you and your mother. I couldn’t do shit when they got to her! If I had, they would have taken me as well, the clan would have been scattered and dead and you...” John paused from yelling at Elle. He had to stop before his tears would run down his face. He slammed his fist one more time, the pain helped him stop the tears. “You would be dead as well. I couldn’t take that risk. I couldn’t take the risk of losing you both.”

Elle was shocked by his reaction, John could see that. He looked up at the ceiling and gritted his teeth. John took a deep breath and straightened his jacket. He was getting warm, uncomfortably warm. “You may not help them, but I will.” Elle said.

“Don’t be ridiculous, Elle. You can’t set foot there without being caught, don’t put yourself or anyone else in danger.” John felt the anger come back. Not because it was a bad idea, but the idea of losing his daughter because someone had ratted out on the group’s position, it almost made him sick.

Elle turned around and walked towards the door. “Elle, please! Don’t do this! I can’t afford to lose you.” He yelled after his daughter.

Elle stopped and turned around too look at him. “If you can afford to lose so many without doing anything, you can afford to lose me too.” She turned around and grabbed the door, walked outside and slammed the door behind her.

John could tell she slammed the door intentionally. He saw how she calmly walked out the door, turned around to give him a last mean look and used her whole body to slam the door shut. He felt the pressure of air hit him. She was mad, real mad. He had to find someone to keep an eye on her. He knew he couldn’t stop her, but he could at least keep an eye on her. He picked up the phone on the table and hovered a finger over the number pad.

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Elle was shaking after she had slammed the door as hard as she could after she left John. She hadn’t felt this mad since... since... mom. Her body stopped shuddering. Tears filled her eyes and glided slowly down her cheeks.  _Mother... I miss you... I miss your smile... I miss your warmth and most of all... I miss your hugs. Your soft and calming hugs._ Elle swallowed some of her sadness as she noticed some of the members in the hall was looking at her.  _Got to get away from here._  Elle dried her tears away with the back of her sleeve. She took a deep breath before she walked down the hall, pretending as if everything was fine. She felt her heart was aching, but she couldn’t let it overcome her before she finally was alone.

Elle climbed the stairs all the way to the top, since the elevator was broken, and opened the fire door that led to the rooftop. As she stood on the roof, she could see almost the whole city. She was glad that up here she could almost always be alone. Few people bothered to go up all those stairs to get a break. Elle remembered her mother helped her all the way up the first time she was here. She was so determined to make it, just to make her mother proud.

Elle looked around herself, making sure no one was around. She climbed up the one ventilator and sat on top of it. She could hear the cars beneath her honking. It wasn’t too quiet, just enough noise to drown her deepest thoughts, but let her think of her fondest memories.

A smile grew on her face when she thought about that one time she helped Emma and Christer up here for the first time. Elle pushed them so hard that when they finally got to the top, they almost passed out. Luckily Elle’s mother had joined them, bringing water and some cookies with her. She knew how to reward them. Her homemade chocolate chip cookies were the very best. Elle missed them a lot. She had tried to bake some herself, but she was probably the worst person she knew to be in the kitchen. She knew the basics of cooking, but baking was a weak spot for her. She wished she could just have a taste of those cookies, just one last time.

As she sat there, smiling to herself, a white pigeon landed just a few feet away from here. She heard it coo softly, as if it wanted her to know it was there, but not to disturb. Her mother had told her some pigeons were trained to send letters and small things. She had never seen anyone had used it, but she still believed it to be true. Of course, in these times, birds were just a sign of freedom, at least to Elle. She had never seen a bird in cage, not once, and she was glad for it. She hated the thought of being stuck in a room, not being able to move around freely. She needed the freedom to run, jump and fall. All her life she had had this freedom, and she would never let anyone take that away from her.

 _How am I going to save you guys._  Elle thought and looked down.  _John is right, I can’t do this without getting caught. I won’t even get close to that place without being spotted. I hate it when he’s right! I just don’t want to lose my closest and oldest friends in my life. Probably my only friends who knew everything about me, or at least almost all of it._  Elle glanced at the dove, it was looking around for food. Elle chuckled to herself.  _You won’t find anything here, little one. You might as well look somewhere else._  The dove was slowly getting closer to her. Elle found it weird that it was not scared of her.  _Perhaps I should try to at least get some information on exactly where in Amare prison they will be placed. If they’re not in the middle of the building, but rather by the edge of it, perhaps a place with a window, I could try to contact them, but how?_ _I_ _would be spotted no matter what._ Elle jumped down from the ventilator and the dove flew up in the air and away.  _Sorry for scaring you, buddy._  Elle thought to herself.

Elle walked over to the edge of the building, leaning over the edge to look down at the traffic and the people walking beneath her. It was something calm about watching so many people without hearing a sound come from them. She turned around and sank down, resting her back to the edge. She knew she would never be able to get to them. Elle looked up at the cloud free sky. She breathed slowly. She closed her eyes and she saw her mother and herself up here. It was dark and the sky was filled with millions of stars. Her mother had lit some candles just to be able to see where they were stepping. Elle was just a small girl and loved spending every moment she could with her mother. Elle had her feet on her mother’s as they were dancing together. They were both giggling and smiling. Elle enjoying this very special moment, because all she could hear was her mother’s singing. She was singing some of Elle’s favourite songs. She was a talented singer and Elle had inherited that talent, except after her mother’s death when Elle was only 11 years old, she would never sing another note. A few times, she would find herself singing a few tunes when she was in the shower, or when she was actually cooking something she was very familiar with, but as soon as she realised, she stopped. It was always the same tune.

 _And you can tell everybody, this is your song. It may be quite simple, but now that it’s done. I hope you don’t mind, I hope you don’t mind that I put down in words. How wonderful life is while you’re in the world._ It was Elle’s and her mother’s favourite song to sing. She had told Elle that she fell in love with the song the first time she heard it, when her mother had sung her the song. Elle smiled just thinking of the lyrics. It was a very old song. She remembered that Elle would beg her mother to sing it while she sat listening to it. Every time she sang it, a faint golden glow surrounded her.  _Oh mom._  Elle smiled.

Elle heard the door to the roof slammed and she opened her eyes. By the door stood her father. He was looking at her with worry in his eyes. Elle just looked at him with an expressionless face. John slowly walked over to her. She didn’t feel her rage against him anymore, she only felt happiness mixed with sadness. He sat down next to her, leaning his back to the edge. He took a deep breath, almost sighing. They didn’t look at each other. They were just sitting there. Elle had her eyes closed. It was always like this after they had a disagreement. She would leave, some time would pass and he would come.

“Elle, I know I can’t stop you from helping your friends, and you know I can’t do anything. I’m sorry that your cowardly father can’t do anything, but I can’t put everyone at risk of being hurt. I just wanted to tell you that I have a man on the inside that can give a message to them if there is something you want them to know, but that’s it. His name is Canis. He's a monster guarding the front gate. He works the nightshift alone there, so contact him then. He looks like a do and he always have a bone haning out of his mouth. But that is all, I’m truly sorry Elle.” John was calm, but Elle could hear he was sorry, and almost sad. “I wish there were more I could do.” He finished.

Elle didn’t say anything.  _How can just a simple message to Christer and Emma be helpful? What am I supposed to say? That I'm going to get them out? That would be a lie. That everything would be okay? That would also be a lie, they were going to be tortured for information before getting killed._ Elle sighed. She looked over at her father who were just staring blankly forward, lost in his thoughts.

Silence.

“I remember taking your mother up here the first time. Starry sky, candles lit and a small music box played her favourite songs. And after you were born, this would be her and yours place. A place where you could make the greatest memories that could be made.” John pulled out a small picture from his inner jacket pocket. It had visible marks of being folded. “I want you to have this. I’ve kept it with me since the day it was taken. I hope you’ll take good care of it.” He handed it to Elle, who carefully took it. She looked at the picture. Her heart warmed up by looking at it.

It was a picture of her and her mom dancing in the dim light from the candles. Her dress was flowing to the side, as if she was turning. Elle had her feet on top of her mother’s feet to be guided while dancing. She could see some of the brightest stars in the background. They were both smiling, but it was her mother’s smile that was the most beautiful one.

Elle bit her lower lip, trying to hold back tears. She held the picture to her chest and looked at her father. They both stood up. Elle opened her mouth, but before she could say anything, John pulled her close and hugged her tightly. She couldn’t remember last time they had been this close. It seemed only her mother kept them together.

They stood there for a while. Elle had wrapped her arms around her father and felt her tears fall. They were soaked up by her father’s shirt. “Elle, I'm proud of you.” He whispered and Elle sobbed. “You remind me so much of your mother, so strong... so stubborn... so determined.” He kissed her head and they finally let go of each other. Elle could barely see her father through her tear-filled eyes.

“Thank you... father.” She smiled. He smiled back and patter her on her shoulder. Elle could see how proud he was.

“I have to go now, I'm sorry, but I will be back tomorrow. In the meanwhile, why don’t you talk to Anthony and ask him about if he knows more about what happened, he was the last to have contact with the group.” Elle nodded and John walked towards the door. “And Elle, please get some rest, I think you’ll need it.” He smiled before leaving her.

Elle looked at the picture one more time and smiled. Elle didn’t have her mother’s short hair, but the colour was the same, warm brown hair. She had her mother’s eyes though, gorgeous chocolate brown.

 _I will stay determined, mother. I will for you._  Elle folded the picture neatly and placed it in her inner jacket pocket. 


	3. Memories

Elle knocked on Anthony’s door. It didn’t take long until the door opened and an older man met Elle. He looked her up and down before smiling. “Elle! What may I help you with?” He asked excited. Elle couldn’t help but smile. It had been some time since she met Anthony. In fact, she hadn’t seen him since he stopped taking task outside and decided to take over as the main communicator for the clan.

“Hello Anthony, John told me I should talk to you to get to know more about the loss we had yesterday.” Elle explained. Anthony looked around before pulling Elle inside the dark room. Only a lamp was lighting up the room, just enough to see the papers on his desk. He guided Elle to a chair and she sat down. Anthony locked the door and sat down by his desk.

He leaned forward. “What do you want to know?” He whispered. Elle raised an eyebrow.  _Why was he whispering?_  She thought. She didn’t know exactly what she wanted to know, but anything to help her understand what led up to this happening would be nice.

“I need to know everything that seemed unusual.” She whispered back. She didn’t know why, but since Anthony was whispering, she felt she had to as well. 

Anthony started to rumble around in his desk’s drawers. He pulled out a folder and some papers and placed them on the table. Anthony was old fashioned and didn’t like computers. He was afraid someone could hack him or find traces of everything he wrote down. It was easier for him to write things down for hand and archive it by hand. And in his mind, it was easier to burn a piece of paper than to burn a memory of a computer, and even then, the trace might not be gone. He glanced at Elle before opening the thin folder.

“So, I don’t have a lot, since the mission was pretty much straight forward and not a lot happened. I have the instructions for the mission, who were to join and how long it was going to last. Here are the specifics of what they were looking for and when they were allowed to contact me. And here... ah yes, this is the first week they contacted me, nothing special there to be honest. And here we have the second week, again, nothing big happened. And here... let’s see, here is the third week. Now here is the interesting part. Look at the log from Wednesday.” Anthony handed Elle the piece of paper.

Elle looked at the paper and searched the page to find the log for Wednesday.

WEDNESDAY

07.00 AM

W.D. Gaster leaving the Amare facility with his youngest brother Papyrus Gaster. They get into a river person black car. It drives off out of sight.

07.46 AM

A big black bus is driven into the Amare facility. Out of the bus comes at least thirty humans and ten monsters. Everyone is chained to each other. They are led into the building by royal guards. The bus leaves five minutes later, one person inside.

09.16 AM

Black river person car stops outside the facility. W.D. Gaster and Papyrus exits the car and walks back in to the building. Car leaves.

02.34 PM

Big silver truck drives into the facility and behind one of the buildings. Seven minutes later the truck reappears and leaves the facility. Drives out of view. 12 guards exit the building and spread out by the front courtyard.

05.30 PM

Nothing.

08.43 PM

They... run... gah!

Elle was confused. The log just stopped. “Wait, what do you mean by they?” Elle asked and looked at Anthony.

He gulped. “That was the only thing I heard before the line was cut off. That's it. There’s nothing more. I tried to contact them later, but nothing. I tried to tell John, but he was too busy with something else. I thought perhaps there was something wrong with the communicator, so it would eb fixed today. Then I heard about the loss we had. I’m sorry it’s not too much help.” He said. Elle glanced again at the paper. She sighed.

“Well, it was worth a try, may I keep this?” Elle asked. Anthony nodded. “Thanks.” Elle stood up and walked towards the door.

“Where is your father by the way?” Anthony asked before Elle could place her hand around the door knob.

“He said he had some business and will be gone till tomorrow.” Elle explained.

“Alright, well, when your father come home, please tell him I need to talk to him.”

“I will.” Elle opened the door and locked it behind her. She folded the paper and placed it in her back pocket.  _Well, that didn’t help at all_ _... what now?_  Elle looked around, the hallway was empty. It wasn’t unusual since most of us didn’t even live in this building. This was the meeting place and where those who got an assignment had to meet up. One could also work out here and train on their skills. Sometimes Elle wished she didn’t live here. She was bored of it, she wanted something new. Elle yawned and stretched her arms in the air.  _Maybe I should take a nap, after all, I barely slept last night._  She thought and walked towards the stairs. She had her bedroom five floor above the main quarter of the building. She slowly went up the stairs, not bothering to use too much energy to get up. After all, she had nothing more to do today. Except to perhaps ponder about what happened yesterday.

She reached her bedroom and opened the door. Even though Elle was allowed to choose a much bigger room, she liked to keep her sleeping space a bit smaller. That way she knew there wasn’t a lot of hiding places for anyone. She was taught to always keep an eye out before she went to sleep, making herself completely vulnerable. She also had to make sure that if someone was going to try themselves on her, she had an escape route. Outside her window was a fire escape for her to get down. It was a long way down, and Elle wasn’t going to kill herself in her escape.

Elle looked around and made sure no one was around, she locked the door behind her and took a deep breath. She lit the small lamp by her bed. She pulled her clothes off, only keeping her shirt and panties on. She closed the blinds by her window, blocking all sunlight out and laid down in bed. Her bed felt nice, but she felt a little guilty for napping this early in the day. She turned her light off and closed her eyes.

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Emma felt immense pain in the back of her head and her chest felt heavy. She tried to move, but her hands were tied behind her back. She realised she was sitting on her knees bent forward. She opened her eyes and found herself in a dimly light concrete room. The only light source was an old lamp hanging from the ceiling, giving off an almost yellow light. She wanted to stand up, but the pressure in her chest kept her down. She couldn’t really move at all. “Hello?” Emma asked out into the darkness.

“Emma?” A familiar voice called out. Emma knew exactly who owned that voice. She felt relief as she heard his voice.

“Christer!” She squealed in joy. She heard dragging noises and Christer came crawling towards her. She smiled when she saw him. “Oh Christer, thank god!” He crawled all the way up to her and sat down next to her.

“Are you okay?” He asked, looking at her with a worried look.

“Yes, except an aching pain in my head and some kind of pressure in my chest.” She explained. He rose his eyebrows.

“I too have a pressure in my chest, but I don’t know what it is.” He said. “Have you been up long?”

Emma shook her head. “No, I just woke up.” Christer looked down. “Is something wrong?” She asked. Christer made a grimace, almost painfully. “Christer?” She leaned forward to look at him. “Christer!?”

Christer fell on his side and started to writhe. He made short and muffled sounds. His mouth opened wide, but not a sound came out. He kept shaking violently when he suddenly let out a wail. It was so loud Emma wished she could cover her ears. After the wail he laid completely still. Emma could only stare at him in horror.

Emma suddenly noticed some red smoke in front of her. It was dark and thick, almost like blood, but she knew it was smoke, because it was disappearing in the air. Out of the darkness stepped a huge skeleton. He was tall and wide. Fat wasn’t the right word to describe him, more powerful. He had a wide smile on his face, showing off a golden tooth. He was dressed in a black suit with a deep red waist coat. He took a step more into the light. Emma knew exactly who this was. She had seen him many times and heard stories of him even more. To see him this close sent shivers down Emma’s spine. Just the thought of his name made her scared;  _Sans_.

The huge skeleton bent down and Emma could see red smoke pour out of his eye sockets. He blew some of the red smoke in her face, making her cough. As he straightened up, Emma was lifted up with him. Her chest felt tighter. She rose up in the air, floating. She was at eye level with Sans now. “Are you going to waste my time? Or would you like to have a bad time?” Sans snarled at her. The stench of blood reached her nostrils and she wanted to puke. She wanted to look away from him, but his black sockets and the blood like smoke pouring out of them was hard to avoid. He grabbed her shirt and pulled her close so their noses were almost touching.

“No!” Emma yelled. Sans let go of her and she fell to the ground. Emma laid on the ground, not daring to move.

Sans stepped into the dark, and the only trace of him was the thick and red smoke surrounding Emma. She glanced at Christer laying lifeless beside her. “Now tell me, what were you doing there?” He asked. She heard the voice form behind her, but she didn’t dare to turn. 

“We were just observing, that’s all. Nothing more, I promise.” Emma answered in panic. Sans didn’t say anything and Emma couldn’t hear a sound. The pain in her chest loosened. She could finally breathe a little easier, but it wasn’t easy, knowing Sans was somewhere in this room with her.

“Where is your main quarter?” Sans asked. Emma couldn’t place where it came from, but she jumped when he asked her. Emma kept quiet. She would never tell him. She knew if she did, everyone in her clan would be in danger. “I’ll ask again, since I feel nice. Where is the main quarter?” His voice became deeper, almost growly. Emma bit her lower lip. She knew he was going to kill her for not answering. What felt like hours passed and she felt her chest tighten, even more than when she first felt it. It was so intense.

She noticed a faint red glow and a thin red cloud of smoke came out of her chest. Her jaw started to shake as she realised why she had such immense pressure in her chest. He had his magic inside her! She had heard stories of how powerful the Gaster brothers were, she knew about them being able to use magic, but she never in her whole life would think that was true. She looked around herself.

The pressure tightened around her heart. It pulled her up and smashed her into the concrete wall. She didn’t fall, she was just hanging in the hair with her body being pushed against the wall. Multiple times her body was slammed against the wall. She heard her bones crack from the isnide. She couldn't scream out the immense pain she had. As her body kept hitting the wall, more blood started to cover it. It was slowly running down the wall, making a pool beneath her. She was slammed one last time before she was just hanging there. Emma’s vision became blurry. She knew she was not only bleeding from the back of her head, but also her whole back. If she could see her own back now, she would have noticed how some tiny fragments of bones were sticking out. The light in the ceiling went out and all Emma could see was two red lights and a faint red glow from the smoke. It came closer to her. Emma could barely keep her eyes open.

“Shame to see such a beautiful woman go to waste. I could have speared ya if you just told me where the main quarter was. If you stopped being so stubborn.” Sans grabbed her cheek and squeezed it. Emma couldn’t really feel his touch from his sharp bony fingers. In fact, she couldn’t feel anything, except the pressure around her heart. “You won’t die until I let ya go.” He cackled. Emma let her head down, closing her eyes, but Sans grabbed her chin and lifted her up. “No no no no, no sleeping while I'm talking to ya. Tell me what I want and I might save ya.” Emma couldn’t keep herself up. She knew she was at the brink of death, but his magic kept her alive. Just barely alive. “No? Being stubborn? Welp, don’t say I didn’t give you a chance.” He let go of her cheek and took a step back. She felt the pressure let go slowly from her chest. Red smoke poured out of her chest and as the last trace of smoke left her body, she started to fall. In that moment Emma felt relief for a split second. And before she could hit the ground, the light inside Emma left her body, and only a lifeless and empty body hit the ground.

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As Emma’s body hit the ground, Sans sighed out heavily. He knew these interrogations were a waste of time, but since his oldest brother WingDings said he had no choice, well then, he had no choice. He rubbed his forehead, thinking he was wasting his magic on these humans. He had to admit he like to torture humans, in fact it was one of his favourite things to do, but it wasn’t as fun when they wouldn’t tell you what you wanted. This was the case with everyone from that god damn clan Arbitrium, no one would say anything. Sans clenched his fist. He felt like a failure for not being able to get anything useful out of any human from that clan. Before his anger could build up, he heard a small whimper from next to him. He looked down and saw the guy was barely moving. Sans was surprised to see the human still alive. He had killed him from inside, or almost apparently, and he was still making noise after removing his magic from him.

Sans turned to the man lying on the floor. He bent down over the man and grabbed his hair and pulled his head up. Sans could see he was barely conscious. He let go of his hair and Christer’s head hit the ground. Sans straightened up and pulled out a cigar from his wait coat pocket. He placed it in his mouth, snapped his fingers in front of it to light the cigar and took a deep inhale from the cigar. Sans felt he was calmer now, the cigar helped him cool down after these interrogations.

 _There must be a better way doing this._  Sans thought to himself.  _Let’s hope..._ Sans was interrupted by Christer’s moaning. He ignored him.  _Let’s hope this Arbitrium leader chose to send a letter to them. Hopefully it would end this pathetic war sooner._  Christer sobbed. Sans felt he was tired of this crying. Sans placed his foot on Christer’s head. For a short moment he hesitated. He didn’t want to ruin his shoes.  _I’m_ _gonna_ _throw these shoes anyway._ He put all his weight on his foot and it didn’t take much until his foot hit the ground. Sans chuckled by himself.  _Silence._  Sans took another drag from his cigar, before he dropped it on the ground. He heard the sizzling from the cigar, he knew he had hit something wet, which made Sans smirk even wider. Sans straightened his waist coat and took a deep breath. He teleported out of the room and to his brother’s office.

WingDings were sitting in a chair by a dark wooden desk. It was neat in his office. Not a single thing wasn’t where it shouldn’t be. Sans stood there, waiting for WingDings to notice him. Since WingDings was only staring at the desk, resting his head in his hands, Sans would have thought he would notice him fairly easy. Sans took a step forward. The sound of the step made WingDings look up. He gave Sans an expressionless look. The yellow light in his right socket was dimly lit. Sans took another step forward and his oldest brother look down on san’s feet.

“So you had to make a mess.” WingDings sighed. Sans looked down and saw his foot was covered in blood and some brain matter.

“Sorry brother, but when the humans won’t cooperate, they have to pay the price.” Sans explained almost carelessly.

“Did you at least get anything useful?” His brother asked.

 _Of course not! They are all as stubborn as that fucking first lady they got. Fucking shit! She was fucking hot too, god damn! It’s a waste of fucking time, and you fucking know it._ Sans wanted to tell him, but knew that would only lead to trouble.

“Nah, bro, nothing. Only that they were scouting and that’s it.” WingDings placed his thumb and index finger between his sockets from that answer. It was always the same answer, but Sans couldn’t help it. It was the truth. The oldest brother stood up and walked in front of the desk, before leaning back on it.

“What should we do? Any suggestions?” WingDings asked. Sans was taken by surprise. His brother asked him for advice? It was new. Maybe Sans could convince that interrogations wans’t going to help and they just had to sweep the city and hunt them down, instead of waiting for them to come forward.

“Forget it, just leave. I don’t want more of your bloody footsteps in my office.” Sans didn’t get to answer before the sentence spat out of WingDings. Sans sighed.

“Alright brother, I'll be in my room if ya need anything.” He said and teleported to Sans’ own room.

Using magic was tiring for Sans. He had a lot of it, but grew quickly tired of using too much of it at once. The only reason he was using his magic while interrogating, was because it was easier to read the humans he was toying with, but also because he didn’t actually have to lift a finger.

Sans walked over to his huge king size bed. The width of the bed was more than enough for Sans, it was the length that was the problem. And he couldn’t imagine how hard it was for WingDings and Papyrus to find long enough beds.

He sat down on the edge and groaned.  _So tired._  He thought to himself.  _Can’t wait for this fucking day to be over._ Sans looked over at the clock hanging on his wall. It was 06.30 PM. It wasn’t an unusual time for Sans to go to bed, especially those days he had been interrogating humans. He laid back and closed his sockets. His sore body could finally rest. Hopefully no one would bother him until tomorrow. 


	4. The Past

Elle was woken up by something hitting her window. She opened her eyes and sat up. She couldn’t really tell how much the clock was, but since there was barely any sunshine creeping through the cracks of her blinds, she could tell it was pretty late. Elle stood up and lifted her blinds. She looked on the fire escape and saw a dove laying on the metal floor. She opened her window and leaned out to lift the bird. Before she could reach the little animal laying there, it jumped up, confused. Elle jumped a little by the sudden movement. The dove strutted around, looking almost embarrassed. Elle couldn’t help but smile. The dove stopped and looked at Elle before flying off.

 _Well, thanks for the wake up._  Elle thought and smiled. She walked over to the bundle of clothes she had thrown there before she went to bed. She put them on and felt a little dirty.  _Gotta_ _take a shower later tonight. If not tomorrow._  Elle walked out of her room, locking it behind her and walked down to the main area.

She walked into the resting room where she could get herself a cup of coffee. Elle didn't really like the taste of coffee, but tea was expensive and water wasn’t a good option to wake her up. Elle hadn’t had tea since she was only 10 years old. She remembered the sweet taste of berries and herbs touch her tongue as she drank the sweet tea. She had used a lot of sugar in her tea back then, or else it would taste almost dry. Her mother had to keep back the sugar, since Elle wouldn’t stop adding sugar to the warm drink.

Elle grabbed the coffee pot and poured out the old coffee. She rinsed it and placed it back on the coffee machine. Elle always wanted an automated one, where you could just place the mug in the machine, and it would do the rest. But this clan wasn’t one that made money. She poured coffee ground in the maker, poured water in it and turned it on. Now it was just the waiting game.

Elle leaned back on the table the coffee maker was standing on. She folded her arms and breathed slowly.

“Hi Elle.” A familiar voice spoke to her form the other side of the room. Elle smiled when he saw who it was. He was a head taller than Elle, and if you counted the ears as well, two heads taller. His soft walking made barely any noise. His blue fur was shining in the light from the falling sun outside. His smile could make anyone happy.

“Hi Nic!” Elle raised her hand and waved. As he was next to Elle, they gave a friendly hug. His soft fur felt nice against her skin. It was like a teddy bear one could by to new-borns that were extra soft. Elle could hold on to him forever.

The first time Elle had met Nic, she was a bit afraid of him. Even though he was only five years older than her, he towered over her when she was eight years old. Her mother had taught her that he was probably one of the kindest Elle would ever meet. When they had met the first time, he had given her a small paper with a short quote on;  _Be the change that you wish to see in the world_.

Elle wished she still had that note. Unfortunately, she lost it somewhere along the way and even though she had been looking for it, she couldn’t find it. As a child she had even admitted it to Nic, and all he had to say was;  _Mistakes are always forgivable, if one has the courage to admit them_. He had gently patted her on her head and smiled to her.

She didn’t know how many quotes he was hiding in that head of his, but he was quite famous for them around here. He was also the monster you could go to get help from. He was always there to talk to you. You didn’t even have to really know him well, he would always listen.

Nic was one of only two that was a part of the clan. The reason was because we humans was afraid of trusting the monsters, especially after what happened to Elle’s mother and the clan. Way back, even before Elle was born, this clan was a huge mix of both humans and monsters. They were working together to take down the king and queen, but after the bloody fight and flight long ago, we had to stop letting monsters in.

Elle was 11 when it all happened, but she remembered it as if it was yesterday. She was sitting with her mother and father in the main room. Elle was on her mother’s lap and her parents were discussing their next move. Both monsters and humans were in the room, some listening to Elle’s parents, other having a break and some were playing cards.

Even though humans and monsters had been living together for quite some time in harmony, the monsters still didn't know too much of the human culture. A simple game of cards was fascinating for some monster who had never heard of it.

The sun was shining and it was a calm and warm day. Elle remembered she wanted to go outside and play that day, but planning was much more important, and even though Elle didn’t understand why, because playing was much more fun, she now wished they actually had a day out. As everything was calm, a sudden crash from the door into the main room killed the silence. Not only had the door been forcefully kicked so hard that it had fallen off its hinges, but even the frame of the door had followed as well. Even pieces of the wall were broken down.

A big dusty cloud was hiding what would be their biggest loss ever, slowly turning red. Without a warning, multiple floating hands came rushing through the cloud, grabbing both humans and monsters, throwing them on the ground, the roof and the floor. Blood spilled everywhere, from both monsters and humans. As the humans were killed, their lifeless bodies were laying on the ground, but as the monsters died, they slowly turned to dust, covering their once old friends. As the chaos was unfolding, Elle’s mother hid her under the table in a small box where only Elle could fit. Elle was peeking through the lid of the box, looking worried at her mother.

Her mother stood up and her father placed himself in front of her, shielding her for whatever would come out of the thick red smoke. Her father had drawn his gun, hoping it would protect them. Out from the smoke, three silhouettes came forth. One big and two tall. To Elle’s parents, they were quite known, but to Elle herself, she didn’t know who they were. The big one had his eyes pouring out red smoke. The first tall one had a scar from his right eye to the top of his skull, and another deep scar from his left eye to the left side of his mouth. His left eye was glowing purple, and his right were glowing yellow. The second tall one, who were a head taller than the first one, had a double scar over his left eye and his right eye was flashing red in anger. The sight terrified Elle to the core of her soul.

The middle one stepped forward with a big grin on his face. He chuckled when he saw John point his gun at him. He lifted his hand, showing his palm to them and quickly drew his hand to the side, making John follow his movement. He was thrown to the wall, knocking him out. The two other skeletons in the background cackled as Elle’s father hit the ground. Her mother was now vulnerable.

The skeleton closest to her mother bowed to her. “It’s a pleasure to finally meet you, dear.” The skeleton said calmly. “I’m WingDings Gaster, but you may call me Dings.” He straightened up and looked down at my mother who could barely reach up to his chest.

Her mother crossed her arms, not showing fear. “Get this over with, I have nothing to say to any of you.” She barked at them. Elle had never seen her mother like this before, she only remembered her sweet smile and soft voice.

“Now now, we aren’t finished with you in quite some while, dear. So I suggest you tell me your name so I have something to call you by.” He took another step towards her, but she didn’t move.

“I’m Frisk.” she said reluctantly. Dings bowed again to her and held out his hand to greet her, but her mother just slapped the hand away.

“No need to be rude Frisk. I haven’t even harmed you... yet.” He smirked. Frisk scuffed at his comment.

“You have harmed everyone in this room and they are all like family to me, so you have harmed me already. I suggest you stop wasting your time and just kill me, because I have no plans of telling you anything.” The two skeletons in the background stepped forward. Staring at Frisk.

“Well, you will have quite some time to reconsider that statement. I know Sans here will have quite the fun when he will interrogate you. And just to give you a warning, he won’t stop until he gets what he wants.” Dings threatened her, even Elle could understand that from the tone he spoke in. “So before you start fighting against us, think of just helping us, it will be much better for you and us.”

Frisk stepped towards Dings and looked up at him with a calm face. “I will tell you one thing and only one thing Mr. Gaster. No matter what you do, no matter how hard you try, you will never, and I repeat,  **never**  stop us. You might have won this round, but that doesn’t mean you have won this game.” She raised her hand, twirling her finger, signalling him to bend down to her. Dings bent down to get at eye level with her. “You and your brothers will burn to ashes, your king and queen will fall, and everything you have fought for will crumble. This world is to be free.” Frisk whispered. Dings was quiet for a moment, thinking of what Frisk had just told him. A big smirk grew on his face before he started to chuckle. He straightened up and looked down at Frisk.

“You’re strong-willed, but I'll tell you that won’t save anyone. Good luck building yourself from this colossal loss, dear. Not only have you lost almost everyone in this clan, but they have also lost their leader now too. And let me tell you, this loss will send quite the warning to everyone who would even dare to oppose us. So before you go on and hand out empty threats to not only humour me, but also piss me off, know that you can back those claims up.” A pair of hands formed behind Frisk and grabbed her, lifting her up to eye level with Dings. She spat on him in anger and Dings were about to slap her, but stopped mid-way. He found a handkerchief from his black jacket and dried the spit away. He lowered his hand and turned around. “Let’s go brothers, we’re done here.”

Elle had the urge to get out and run at them, but she knew she couldn’t do anything. As they walked away, Frisk was still held up by the hands and was floating behind them. That was the last thing she saw of her mother.

“Elle, are you there?” Nic said, snapping her out of her thoughts. Elle shook her head and looked at Nic almost confused.

“I’m so sorry Nic, was caught in my own thoughts.” Elle explained. Nic just smiled and held up a mug filled with fresh coffee. Elle just looked at it.

Nic giggled. “It’s the coffee you were making.” He smiled. Elle took the mug and stared at the floor. “It’s okay Elle, I understand why you’re so gone. It must have been hard to hear what happened yesterday.” He took a mug for himself and filled it with coffee.

“Huh? Oh yeah, yeah it’s not only a big loss for the clan, but for me as well. I feel like it’s just getting darker for this clan. Just loss after loss after loss, nothing comes out of this.” Elle took a sip from the mug. Taste was still bad.

“You just need some faith, everything will be better, I promise you.” Nic tried to smile to her, but Elle just ignored it.

She scoffed. “Faith? Where has faith taken anyone?” She bit her inner chin. She knew he meant well, but Elle was too bitter thinking of the past.

“Know what I call a bird that feels the light when the dawn is still dark?” Nic asked with a smile on his face.

Elle couldn’t help but smile. “Let me guess; faith?” Nic nodded.

“Yep, Faith. Don’t forget that life is full of happiness and tears, you just have to be strong and have faith, and with it, anything is possible.” He placed a hand on Elle’s shoulder. Elle looked at him. His smiled made her warm inside. “I’m here if you need me, Elle. I will always be here.”

Elle nodded and took another sip. “You think you can help me with something?” She asked quietly. Nic nodded. Elle looked around her, making sure she hadn’t missed anyone being in the room when she first entered. “I need to find out what happened on the post yesterday. I got the log from that day, but nothing useful came out of it. So I was thinking that I was going to the spot to see if something was left behind.” Nic looked at her with a worried look.

“Elle, you know there’s a curfew after ten, right? Only the rich are allowed to go outside after that.” He gulped. Just the thought of being caught outside after curfew sent shivers down Elle’s spine. “You can’t honestly mean you want to take that chance.”

Elle shrugged. “I figured if I keep to the rooftops, it would be easier to get around.” Nic sighed. “But I need someone with me.” Elle looked at Nic, hoping he would get the point. And he did. His eyes widened as he got the point.

He shook his head with wide eyes. “No, no and no. I’m not going outside, not after last time when I almost got caught.” He said and took a long sip from his cup.

“Last time? You mean you have done this before?” Elle asked surprised.

The blue rabbit nodded. “Of course, I'm probably the sneakiest bastard around here, and your father, John, wanted me to go out and do some research on the rich guys in town. See if I could eavesdrop on them as they walked the streets.” He explained.

Nic was right though, he was the sneakiest creature around. Not only was he good at hiding, but he walked so quietly that he never made a sound when his soft feet hit the ground. Elle knew that if he hadn’t greeted her, she wouldn’t had noticed him until she was right in front of her.

Elle looked at Nic, trying to give him the most pleading face she could make. “Please Nic, I really need your help. I need to know it’s safe to go to their spot, but I can’t even get close without being heard, therefore I need your soft feet and sneaky body to find that out for me.”  Elle bit her lip and gave Nic her pleading eyes.

Nic sighed deeply. Elle felt a hope inside of her. “Fine... but only because you’re too good at asking.” He chuckled. “So when were you planning on going out?”

Elle only smiled. “Tonight, in fact... now would be a good time.” She took one last sip from her mug and placed it on the table. “The sooner the better, and since we both are here, let’s go.” She walked towards the door. Nic sighed, took a big gulp of coffee and walked after her.

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As Nic followed behind Elle, he couldn’t help but notice her swinging hips as they walked. He wouldn’t deny that Elle had grown up to be a fine woman, with a lot of traits from her mother. Her tiny waist, round hips, thick lips and chocolate brown eyes that one could dream of swimming in.

When he had first met Elle, he found her adorable. Of course, both were too young to even feel too much of that sexual attraction, especially for Elle, but as they grew up, Elle turned from an adorable little girl, to probably the most beautiful woman Nic had ever seen. And with her strong personality and care for others, made her so much sexier.

Of course Nic couldn’t tell anyone about it, even though he had heard other humans in the clan talk about her fine ass, which she did have, he had to compose himself from not smacking them in the face for talking sexually about the daughter of the leader of their clan. After all, Elle had a sort of higher status than everyone else in the clan, even though Elle had said she didn’t feel like it and certainty didn’t agree with it.

Nic had often dreamt of Elle. She seemed like that sweet neighbour girl that bakes cookies for newcomers, but Nic liked to think of her as quite the dirty girl. He liked them when they would enjoy being spanked, and imagining spanking Elle while she lies defenceless over his lap, made Nic instantly hard.

But just a week before the big loss, Frisk had pulled Nic aside, and asked him to watch over Elle, to protect her. Nic couldn’t say no to that, especially when Frisk pled him. She must have somehow known the ambush was going to happen.

Nic would have never thought Elle would become such a fine woman, even though she had some good genes to grow from. It became harder and harder for each year that passed, to not think of fucking Elle. But he allowed himself to at least dream of her whenever he was alone. Just a simple thought of her in her underwear made Nic hard.

He studied her hips as they swayed back and forth. It was like a trance. He swore he could watch this all day long. Suddenly the swinging stopped and Elle turned around. Elle looked weird at him with a smile. Nic shook his head.

“What are you looking at? Is there something on my back?” She asked and giggled.

Nic felt his face turn hot. “N-no... Just gone in my thoughts, sorry.” He lied. He gulped and blushed slightly. He looked away, trying to hide his face.

Elle just chuckled. “Okay, if you say so.” She turned around again and they started to walk. Nic forced himself not to look down again in fear of being caught. “So I was thinking we would go up to the roof and take it from there. We should eb able to get all the way to their spot by just using the roof, but just in case, we should get some ropes.” She said as Nic quickly glanced at her ass.

 _Stop Nic!_  He thought, biting his lip.  _Oh god, but it’s so nice._  He shook his head.  _Shut the fuck up and focus._  Nic had barely heard what Elle said, but responded with a quick yes.

Elle and Nic stopped outside a room to get the ropes they needed. It was specially made ropes that helped the climber go up and down, and would grow or shorten as they were used. It was a neat invention by Alphys. She used to be a friend of Elle’s mother, but after Frisk joined the clan, they lost touch. Especially considering Alphys worked for the king and queen. So Frisk made sure to grab with her some neat inventions to help the clan out.

Elle handed Nic a rope and he tied it around his waist. It was long enough to go around two times before it had to be made a knot. Elle had to go three rounds before making a knot. Before they left the room, Elle grabbed a small smoke ball just in case. They locked the door behind them and started to go up the stairs. Nic hated the stairs, but with the view he was having all the way to the top, he couldn’t complain.

As they reached the top, the sun was gone and darkness had swallowed the city. It was the perfect scene to get around. They could hear the clubs had opened and they were all pumping out their music. Both Nic and Elle knew what was going on in those clubs, and couldn’t understand how anyone would let it be going on, but then again, it was always something worse happening somewhere else.

“Well, are you ready?” Elle asked Nic. Even though Nic would rather be in bed, dreaming of Elle, he nodded. Elle smiled and it made Nic warm inside. “I really appreciate it, Nic. Thank you.”


	5. Rooftops

Elle shuddered at the wind that slid through her clothes. She zipped her jacket up. Elle looked at Nic and gave him a warm smile. “Let’s go.” She said. Nic nodded in response and they started to walk. Luckily for them, most of the buildings were connected to each other. Which made it easier to move around. All they had to do was to get over all the edges. There was no need to hurry, since they had all night.

“Can you believe what’s actually going on down in those clubs?” Nic asked. Elle couldn’t tell if he asked because he was curious about her opinion, or if he just wanted to have something to talk about. Either way, not really what she wanted to talk about.

Elle shook her head. “I wish it was illegal, it’s absolutely disgusting.” Elle shrugged. The thought sent chills down her spine.

All the clubs in the city was owned by monsters. It had been so since the monsters and humans started to live together. For some reason, everyone preferred what the monsters could provide. Not all, but most bars, provided quite intimate services. As long as one had the money for it, they were allowed to get the service. The most famous club to have this was Grillby’s bar. Not only was it the most popular bar in the city, but also the bar with the highest standard. Elle had never been in there, but heard rumours that it was so high quality in there, that only very few rich people could afford to get in.

An old member of the clan used to be a part of a lesser known club where they had this service. She was a part of that menu, and she had seen and experienced so much, she was broken for a long time. We had saved her one night, from being raped by one of the rich people, on her way home. She was payed for doing what she did, but it wasn’t close to worth considering what she went through. She went to therapy for a long time, until one day she joined us and helped us save more girls from this terrible job. But a raid went wrong and we lost her.

Elle remembered she had the most beautiful ocean blue eyes. Her dark skin was such a contrast to her eyes, it made her more beautiful. She was worth a lot for the club that had her, the only thing that made her worthless in Grillby’s bar was that she had a scar on her back from when she was a child.

“I remember that one girl we helped. What was her name again? … Mila was it?” Nic asked. Elle nodded. Mila, the woman who fought not only for herself, but also every woman who was trapped in this business.

Mila had told Elle that most women who were in this business was sold to the owners when they were just teens. Of course, it was illegal for underaged to be a part of this service, so they were kept somewhere else till they were old enough.

Elle got another chill down her spine.  _Disgusting._  Elle spat, trying to get rid of the sour taste forming in her mouth.

Nic took a deep breath. “It’s a lovely night.” He said. Elle turned to look at him. He seemed a bit confused by Elle turning with a questioning face, but she just smiled. He smiled back, showing off his white teeth.

“It is, isn’t it. The only thing that would have made this perfect was no lights from the city and no music. Just complete silence.” Elle said. She took a deep breath. The air was clean. She was happy that the only form for transportation in this place was The River Person’s transportation, and some authority owned vehicles. And of course, the king and queen had their own car.

The city didn’t see much from the royal family. They were only outside to greet the people on special days and holidays, like Gyftmas and Flowerday. Elle had never seen them in person, only in photos and small glimpses on TV, and yet she was a part of a clan that worked day and night to take them down.

Elle herself felt she wasn't really working against the royal family, but rather another family.  _The fucking Gaster family_. Elle clenched her fist. She was longing for the day she could get her revenge for taking away her mother. God knows what they did to her, but she had sworn she would not rest until she had taken them all down. The image of the three brothers in the thick cloud filled her with anger.

“Elle, watch out!” Nic grabbed her arm and pulled her back. They both fell back. “Wow, that was close.” He said and breathed out in relief.

Elle looked in front of her and realised she had almost walked off the building. She looked at Nic who seemed a bit worried. “Sorry, Nic. Thoughts taking over my head.” Elle explained.

They sat there for a second. “Elle, you sure you want to do this now?” Nic asked and slid closer to her.

“Yes, I need to get over with this as soon as possible, or else my thoughts will haunt me, telling me I did nothing to try to help them.” Elle sighed. Nic placed a hand on her shoulder and they looked at each other. “Let’s just get going.” Nic nodded and they stood up.

“So how are we going to get over here?” Nic asked. Elle chuckled and took a few steps back.

“How do you think?” She smirked and started to run towards the edge. She jumped over the nine feet long jump. She landed with a roll on the other side. Nic stared at her with his jaw dropped. “Come on, Nic! Just jump!” She waved at him. She didn’t think he would have any problem since he was a bunny.

Nic took a few steps back before he started to run. He took a big jump. He landed three feet further away from Elle. She was impressed by the jump and applauded him when he landed. Unfortunately, he didn’t really stick the landing and started to roll a few feet. Elle couldn’t help but giggle when he sat up with his head swaying.

Elle stood up and walked over to him. “You okay?” She held out a hand to him. He grabbed it and she helped him up.

He shook his head carefully. “Yeah, I think so. I haven’t done a jump like that in quite some time.” He placed his hand behind his head, scratching it with an awkward smile.

“It was a really nice jump, you only need to stick the landing and you’ll be the best jumper I've ever seen.” Elle complimented him. She patted him on the back and they started to walk.

“Alright, a couple of more buildings and we should be close to the place.” Elle said as they heard a club right beneath them. The music almost drowned Elle’s words.

“Have you been there before?” Nic asked.

She had been there once, but only to deliver some food supplies to the group there. Since they were not allowed to leave, they had to be brought what they needed. it was a couple of years ago since had been there.

“Yes, once. Been some time ago now, but I remember the spot. The view from a building not too far away from the spot was stunning.” Elle paused, smiling.

He placed his hands in his pockets. “Wow, good memory then.” Nic sounded surprised.

Elle chuckled. “And I read it in the report.” Elle burst out in laughter when Nic stopped and stared at her. She placed a hand on her belly, bending down as the laughter was too much. Nic couldn’t hold back a smile from his annoyance. “I’m... I'm sorry... Nic.” She was gasping from air. “I had... to.” She sat down on her knees and laughed even more.

Nic started to chuckle. “Alright, let’s get moving now.” He said snickering. Elle tried to calm down. She breathed with her stomach before finally standing up. They slowly started to walk. Elle was still chuckling and Nic couldn’t help but to just smile.

Elle hadn’t laughed that hard in quite a while, and even though it wasn’t the greatest joke she had pulled, she still found it funny. She guessed it was her being a bit nervous about being out late at night.

She had actually never been outside this late before without either her mother or father. This was the first time she had herself decided to be outside. She looked up in the sky and saw the stars twinkle. The starry sky reminded her of her mother and their dancing.

“Thinking of her?” Nic cut her thinking. Elle gave him a half smile. “Yeah, I think a lot of her too. She was probably the greatest lady to have ever lived. Kind, strong, protective and of course determined.” They both stopped to look up. “Remember when I first met her. I was such a young and scared little bunny. Did she ever tell you how she found me?” Nic asked. They looked at each other and Elle shook her head. “I was homeless. My parents had died and I had no siblings. I had to find some kind of shelter, so the dumpster was the best thing I could find. No one would hire a little boy like me back then, so I couldn’t make money to get food. I would go to the local shelters, but I was so small everyone pushed me away, not giving me a chance to eat. Then one day, as I were looking through some trashcans for some food. That’s when your mother first saw me. I looked at her and as she approached me, I hid in the trashcan. She gently opened the lid and saw me lying there, covered in dirt. She gave me one of the warmest smiles I have ever received. She found a cookie from her purse and gave it to me. It was the best cookie I have ever tasted. I ate it so fast I almost missed the taste. She giggled at me and pulled me out of the trashcan. She brushed some of the dirt from my face with a small handkerchief. She took my hand and guided me out of that hole. She took me to the main building of the clan back then and washed and fed me. Not too long after that, she introduced me to you.” Nic stopped, taking a deep breath. “I never got to thank her properly. I always have her in my mind when I set a goal. She’s my guider through the dark, and if I'm not mistaken, she’s your guider as well.” Elle looked at Nic. He was had his head tilted a bit with a relaxed smile. Elle smiled back and nodded. “I have a feeling she’s watching over us somewhere out there, and she’s proud of every step you take, Elle. I just feel it.”

Elle’s smile widened. For some reason, she had felt the same as Nic described. She must be out there, watching her with proudness. “I didn’t know my mother found you. I always thought you came here with your parents.”

“No, she found me. And I'm thankful for it to this day. I know that one day I will meet her again, and when I do...” He stopped. Elle walked over to him and gave him a hug.

“She didn’t have to hear it, it wasn’t the reason she did all of those things. She did it because it made her happy, it made her feel like she did something to make this world a better place.” Nic tightened the hug. He felt so soft against her skin. It felt really nice. They let go of each other and smiled. “Let’s walk the last bit and get this over with.” She said. Nic nodded and they started to move again.

They ran over a few more roof tops until Elle stopped Nic. “It’s over there, do you see the small top on that building?” it wasn’t too easy to see, since it was just a very small bump hiding behind the small edge of the building.

“Yeah, I see it.” He answered.

“Good, now just get over there and see that everything is clear. Wave at me if it’s ok, if not, run the fuck out of there, ok?” Elle explained and Nic nodded. “Since you have to go inside and be gone for a minute or two, I won’t know if someone is inside, so if you’re not out after five minutes I will come in, ok?”

“Come in? Bu then there’s danger, you can’t do that.” Nic said. He crossed in arms in disapproval.

“Nic, I can’t lose you too.” She said and placed a hand on his arm.

Nic looked down at her hand touching him. “Elle, please... Just wait, and if I’m not out within five minutes, leave. I can handle myself, but please... just go, promise me that.” Elle nodded. She took her hand back and Nic turned around. He ran across the building that separated them and the spot.

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Nic reached the end of the building and jumped across the small gap. He stopped and walked silently towards the spot. The thought of someone being there was making a knot in his stomach.

_What is someone is there? What if someone that works for Gaster is there.... What if one of the_ _Gaster Brothers are in there._  Nic swallowed heavily. He walked even slower now, hoping that someone would walk out of that spot, so he could run back to Elle. He looked behind him, making sure Elle was still watching, she was.

As he approached the spot, he went down on all four. The last thing he wanted was to be spotted. He crawled closer and closer to the entrance. His heart started to pump faster, he was getting more nervous. He didn’t want to get caught, especially how close it was last time.

He was delivering some crates of food to a group watching Grillby’s bar. It was a calm night and not much was happening. He had given them the crates and had a small chat with them. As he was leaving, the group was attacked. They had seen Nic and started to run after him, but luckily, he got away. He didn’t know how, he just did.

Nic opened the hatch carefully. It made a screeching sound as it opened. His ears dropped down as he heard the sound. He crawled inside, turned on the light and looked around. The room wasn’t big, probably enough room for ten people. All the food was scattered on the floor, and the plates and cups were broken. The electronics were smashed and the sheets to the beds were torn to pieces. There was no doubt that everything had happened down here. He saw some blood on the floor and walls. Not much, but enough to indicate quite the struggle. He also found some dust on the floor, indicating that some monsters had died in the ambush. Nic guessed it had to be monsters working for the Gaster brothers.

Nic turned around and climbed up the few stairs to get out. As his head popped out from the hatch, he saw Elle waving and jumping. He tilted his head and looked strangely at her. He lifted his hand up about to wave, when he felt something grab the back of his neck. Nic froze as the creature pulled him up and faced him.

It was Papyrus who had so easily lifted him up. The scar on his eye made Nic quiver. Next to him stood Sans with his permanent smirk.

“GOOD THING WE SAT UP THAT ALARM SYSTEM, BROTHER.” Papyrus said proudly.

“Indeed, bro. Good thing you came snooping around too.” Sans chuckled. Nic was completely speechless. “Now no need to worry, we only want to ask a few questions, then you can be on your merry way.” Nic was staring at Sans. He felt pain in his neck from the way Papyrus was holding him, his claw like fingers digging into his skin. “Do you work for the clan?”

Nic shook his head desperately, begging them to believe him. Sans shook his head and tsked. “Don’t you hate it when they lie, bro?” Sans looked up at his brother.

“INDEED BROTHER. SUCH A SHAME TO WASTE TIME BY LYING.” Papyrus remarked. “DO YOU THINK HE PERHAPS CAN FLY?”

Nic’s heart stopped.  _Fly?! Rabbits can’t fly!_  Nic tried to struggle out of his grip as they turned towards the edge. Papyrus held him over the edge and the skeleton brothers chuckled.

“What are you doing here?” Sans growled. Nic swallowed, terrified of his life.

“We’re just here to find out what happened!” Nic yelled. His heart was beating so fast it felt like he was running a marathon.

“And where...” Sans stopped and Nic’s eyes widened. “We?” He asked curiously. Nic’s heart stopped. A big mistake was made.

“We? Who said we? I said me!” Nic tried to talk himself out of this, but he had already fucked up.

“Who else is here?” Sans barked. Nic flinched and started to shake.

_Oh god, what do I say!?_  Nic didn’t know what to say, he didn’t know how to get Elle to run.

“Hey!” Sans and Papyrus turned around in confusion. Nic’s heart stopped.


	6. The sacrifice

“Well, what do we have here?” Sans chuckled. John stayed silent. “What are you doing here? Friend of the rabbit?” Sans smirked as the man’s eyes narrowed.

“Let him go!” John ordered. He clenched his fists and postured himself as wide as he could. He felt the intimidation of how big Sans was. Last time they had met, he had barely seen anything of him. 

He was too focused on protecting his dear wife from WingDings, and after being slammed into the wall, he had passed out. He had woken up to Elle crying in the box her mother had placed her in. He would never forget the tear-filled eyes as he picked her out of the box. He had tried to shield her from all the lifeless bodies scattered around in the room. At that moment, all he could hear was Elle’s sulking. He couldn’t think as all his thoughts swam back and forth in his head, almost like whispers.

Sans took a step forward and glanced back at his brother. Papyrus got an angry look and the light in his eye flickered. He dropped Nic and as soon as he hit the ground, Papyrus placed a foot on his head, keeping him from moving.

“WHY DO YOU WANT THIS RABBIT, HUMAN? HE’S A MONSTER, DON’T YOU DESPITE MONSTERS?” Papyrus smirked.

John had never hated monsters, except the ones that had destroyed their human royal family. The former and now dead king was a childhood friend of him, and John and Frisk had been invited to the royal family’s home numerous times. They had been invited over for tea that afternoon they were slaughtered, but they were held up because Elle hadn’t felt too well that day. If they had been there, then who knows what would have happened.

John remembered the king as a proud man. A man who honoured his family and his role as a king. He wasn’t an unfair man and he would always find a way to keep the peace. His thick and golden hair and beard looked like a lion’s mane, and his yellow eyes looked like a setting sun, where the sky looks like it’s on fire.

Many had speculated that he actually was a monster, but it had been proven through record of their family that he indeed was a human. No one could really explain why he looked this way, but for generations, all the kings had the same appearance, the golden lion. That’s what many called him. The king had only found it amusing and sometimes taken pride in it.

The king and queen had a child, but no one knew what happened to the child when they were killed. Some said it was killed too, but others speculate that the new royal family has their child hidden somewhere in their home.

John bit his inner chin, stopping him from yelling at them. How could they accuse him of hating monsters? Yes, he had some trust issues after everything the clan had been through, but he would never hate a monster.

John had grown up in a hating environment. His family had almost been racist towards the monsters ever since they returned to the surface. They accused them for being thieves and murderers, but what his family didn’t know, was that when John was just a child, an older monster had saved him.

John was playing in the small park by his mother’s old job site. John had been home-schooled and didn’t have many friends. So he would play in the park whenever his mom was working, and she would home-school him when they got home.

One day, when he was playing with a football that was forgotten by some others, he accidentally kicked it too hard. It flew across the small park and out into the road. As a child having fun, you forget everything around you and focus only on what makes you happy. He had run after the ball, staring it down like a prey trying to run away. John hadn’t noticed the car driving down the road because of some bushes at the edge of the park.

As John was about to run into the road, the car finally saw him, but it was too late, he was going to be hit. Just a moment before the car would slam into John, killing him, an elder monster had grabbed his shirt, pulling him backwards and out of the road. The car had stopped just a few feet away from them. John and his rescuer were lying on the ground with only a few scratches on his arms.

From that moment on, he would never judge a monster until they proved themselves that they were not to trust. He wouldn’t dare to tell his family about the incident, afraid to be beaten. After that day, John would find his rescuer sitting on a bench while John would play. Sometimes John would even go up to him, ask him what he was reading or doing.

“Just let him go.” John repeated. Sans just shook his head with a smirk. John knew they wouldn’t let a snooper just go because he told them to, so he had to give them the ace he was holding. “I’m the leader of Arbitrium.”

The skeleton brothers lost their smirk. They looked almost surprised, which amused John. Of course, they wouldn’t believe him. Just a random guy telling two big and feared monsters to let go of a random snooping rabbit, but he told them the truth.

Sans burst into laughter before calming completely down. He kept his grin as he took another step forward. “You, the leader? Ha! Now I've heard everything.” He snickered. “Did you hear that, pap? He’s the leader of the Arbitrium.” Papyrus laughed. 

 _So_ _you think this is funny? Well, let me show you then._  John thought and grinned for himself. He pulled his jacket off and the brothers stopped laughing. It was so silence John could hear his own heartbeat.

On his now exposed arms, some very familiar marks were shown. On each of his upper arm, there was a purple mark of a hand wrapping around. The palm had a hole in it. It was like burned marks that was left behind by WingDings when he slammed him into the wall.

What most humans and monsters knew was that whoever was touched by WingDings’ magic was marked for life if they got to live, which not a lot of people did.

When he first noticed them was after gathering the rest of the clan that was out that day. He had held a crisis meeting, talking about the loss and what to do. After the meeting he had put Elle to sleep and as he was about to shower that night, he saw the markings. Of course the markings had faded away a little since then, they weren’t nearly as purple as they were now.

“After you took my  **wife** , I had to take control. This is the permanent reminder of that day.” John growled, angry for reminding himself of that day and exposing his marks to the skeleton brothers.

He never thought he would have to do this, to surrender himself so vulnerably to save not only Nic, but his dearest daughter.

He had lied to her when he said he had to go away, he chose to keep an eye on her to see what she would do when she was left all alone to herself. John couldn’t make himself trust anyone after everything, and seeing how Elle was acting after the loss, he was the one to watch over her, at least for a couple of days.

When he first decided to do this himself. he wouldn’t have guessed she would go outside to the very spot she lost her two friends. When he saw that Nic was caught he had no choice but to interfere before Elle would barge out there. John knew Nic was a good friend of Elle, so it wasn’t hard for him to know Elle would try to save him.

When John tapped on Elle’s shoulder, letting her know he was there, she had almost punched him in the face. Luckily for John, he had some good reflexes. She had grabbed her arm, letting her realise it was her father.

 _“What are you doing here?”_   _She had asked him. He had only said he was on a stroll, doing a small_ _survey_ _of the city when he saw her._ _Of course,_ _he knew it was a lie, but she bought it. “I’m going in, so stay here no matter what.” He had told her, but before he could_ _go,_ _she had grabbed his arm. “Please, I can’t_ _lose_ _you too.” She had whispered. He had noticed her eyes were shinier than before, indicating tears. “Elle, I'm sorry, but now it is your turn to take this clan to glory. Do what must be done. Don’t lead this clan like a coward like me, but with bravery and pride like your mother. Make us both pride and take back what was once both monsters and humans. I know you can do it.” He had kissed her on her forehead and started to walk towards the skeleton brothers. “Hey!”_

Sans eyes widened a little “I remember you now. You were the guy who tried to protect the last leader. I'm surprised you survived that slam, I could have sworn I heard your bones crack.” Sans chuckled after uttering those last words.

“Now let him go! I’m the one you want. Take me and see Arbitrium fall.” John lied. He held his arms out to the side, indicating he wasn’t going to fight them.

Sans’ eyes narrowed on him. “You’re sacrificing the clan for a rabbit?” He was sceptical and John could understand why. Saving one monster and let the biggest fighting clan in the city fall. Sans must have thought he was mad, but John knew Elle would lead the clan to glory.

“You heard me, now let him go! I’m tired of fighting, so many lives going to waste. I’ve realised how much of a loss we’ve endured through the years. I want to end this and give up. No more deaths because of me. Now let him  **go**  and take me instead.” John still stood there with his arms wide open. The smirk on Sans’ face grew wider.

Sans looked at his brother and then down on Nic. “Guess it’s your lucky day, huh? No flying for you this time.” He looked back up at Papyrus. “Let him go, we got the big fish here.” He turned towards John.

Papyrus let out a little growl. He removed his foot from Nic’s head and took a step to the side. Nic slowly stood up, his legs shaking. He barely moved, afraid of being grabbed again.

“MOVE.” Papyrus gnarled and pushed Nic forward. Nic fell forward and crawled a little before forcing himself up. He glanced at John who nodded to him. As he got up, he started to run.

“Come then, leader.” Sans said. John picked up his jacket and put it on, and he walked forward, still his hands to the side. He didn’t want to make any unnecessary violence. As he came closer his chest tightened. When he was just a few feet away from them, Papyrus walked over to him and grabbed the back of his neck. His fingers wrapped all around his throat. “WingDings will be pleased when he gets to meet you.”

Papyrus placed a hand on Sans’ shoulder while he was still holding John. In a blink of an eye, they were gone.

 

* * *

 

WingDings sat in his dark office. The silence let him think. He enjoyed every moment he could have this silence. Not the silence where you could hear cars moving outside or hear talking from the corridors. No, he enjoyed the complete silence where the only thing he could hear was his own thoughts.

He was leaning onto the desk, resting his head in his hands. He felt a slight curiosity for what would come back after Sans and Papyrus returns from the alarm. It was his idea in case someone would come snoop around. He knew that those who would be snooping around there, was a part of the clan. Every person he could take away from the clan, was a victory in itself. He enjoyed seeing their desperate faces as they are being dragged into Sans’ interrogation room. He didn’t mind that they barely got any info from them, because hearing the sweet sound of screaming from humans made his heart thump a little harder. He had a small admiration to how loyal they were to the clan.

He took a deep breath and closed his eye sockets. The image of Frisk came to his mind. When she was kneeling on his office floor. She had been slapped in the face by Papyrus after trying to struggle against him. It made WingDings mad. He had told Papyrus to treat the lady with respect, but he had lost his temper.

She had a small cut in her lip and WingDings hasn’t hesitated to dry away the blood with his handkerchief. He had bent down and dabbed her lip. She didn’t mind, she knew he was trying to act decent. She looked so pure where she was kneeling, her hands tied behind her back and messy hair. She looked so fuckable, but WingDings knew he had to contain himself and his urges. She was a beautiful lady, but also the leader of the only thing fighting against him and the royal family.

He found himself thinking a lot of Frisk. She had made quite an impression on WingDings, despite not being here for long. Frisk was actually the only prisoner to last for day being interrogated by Sans. Even though she lasted for days, they didn’t get too much out of her, but WingDings enjoyed the little company he got from her when she was in his office.

WingDings was interrupted in his thoughts as he heard a few footsteps. He looked up and saw Sans, Papyrus and a man stand in front of him. Ho gave Sans a questioning look.

Papyrus pushed John a little forward, still keeping a grip around John’s neck. “What is this?” WingDings asked. He scanned the man up and down.

Sans took a proud step forth. “Brother, this is the man we’ve been waiting for a long time now.” He smirked. WingDings eyes widened, the yellow light in one of his eye sockets flickered in excitement. He stood up and walked in front of the desk.

“How do you know it’s him?” He asked curiously. “For all we know, he could be some random human claiming what he can claim.” WingDings crossed his arms.

“Look at his arms.” Sans looked at Papyrus. Papyrus grabbed the back of his jacket and pulled it forcefully off. To Papyrus’ surprise, it slid off very easily.

When WingDings saw the purple marks on John’s arms, he let out a small maniac laughter. He walked over to John in excitement, his heart thumping. “This is wonderful! Finally. We've been waiting a long time to finally meet you.” WingDings chuckled. John was staring at the floor.

WingDings placed a finger under John’s chin and tilted his head up, making John look at him. Not both of his eyes were flickering in excitement. “I’m glad to see you got some sense in you and chose to end this foolish war. Now, before we continue, I would like to know your name.” He smirked to John.

“I’m John, Frisk’s husband.” John answered. Some of WingDings smirk died. “Or was her husband.” WingDings removed his finger and John looked down.

He took a step back. “We must all make sacrifices, John.” WingDings said in a rather low and calm manner. “Now, I'm glad that we can finally end this war, and I'm looking forward to have a chat with you later, but right now I can imagine you’re tired.” WingDings looked over at Sans. “Sans, take our guest to his new room where his former wife spent her last days.” He smirked. John looked up at him with the angriest look he had ever seen a human make to him. He chose to ignore it.

Sans nodded and turned towards Papyrus and John. “Let’s go bro.” Papyrus grabbed John and Sans placed a hand on John’s shoulder. They disappeared as quickly as they appeared.

WingDings was now left alone in his office again. He could see some of Sans’ red smoke was lingering where they once stood. He took a deep breath, satisfied now that the war was over. “Finally.” He breathed out. He walked around his table and sat down in his chair. As soon as he closed his eyes, he couldn’t help but to think of Frisk again. Smirking, he leaned back and enjoyed the image in his head.


	7. The Beginning

Elle was at the brink of screaming as her eyes filled up with tears. Nic ran over to her and kneeled down in front of her. Her jaw was shaking. Nic pulled her into his arm and wrapped his arms around her. Nothing could stop Elle’s sadness as she sat there, trying to comprehend the fact that she now had no parents, and both had been lost to the same brothers. She was filled with pure anger, but her heart felt like it was broken, like it didn't want to make another beat.

Nic pressed her closer to his chest, letting her heart listen to his beat. It was calm, but powerful. He was stroking her back, trying his best to calm her down. Elle had started to sulk, which meant only one thing, she had let her tears roll. The soft fur was sucking up her salty tears. Elle was trying her best to not let her snot run too far, but it was hard when her eyes felt like waterfalls and everything felt dark.

Nic let go of her a little and she pushed herself a little back to look up at him with a thankful smile. Nic smiled back, almost giggling. She could only imagine how bad her face looked right now.

Elle knew that whenever she had cried, her face turned red. Her mother had teased her about it, but she knew Frisk only meant well.

She remembered back when Frisk comforted her after Elle had fallen over. A small scratch had formed on her knee and she remembered it was painful. Her mother had rinsed it and plastered it, and sealed it with a gentle kiss. It was the perfect recipe for stopping the pain. 

Nic pushed her hair behind her ear. “What now?” He asked. Elle wasn’t quite sure about it, since she now was left with the responsibility for the clan.

“I don’t know.” Her voice came out weaker than she meant to. Her words were almost drowned by her tears. “I just... I got nothing now.” Nic tilted his head to the side.

“That’s not true, Elle. You got me and the clan members.” She knew he tried his best to make her look brighter at things, but after what she had just witnessed, she barely had any hope left. “Elle...” He bit his lip. He seemed uncertain of how to utter his next words. Nic stood up and held out a hand to her.

She grabbed it and he pulled her up. He wiped away her tears and made her straighten her back. “It’s your time to shine now, Elle. Make this clan the way you want to, do what you believe is the right thing to do. I know you can do it, and as long as you keep your head high and back straight, they will follow you.”

Elle felt a beat in her heart.  _He’s right. Just stand tall and they will follow you. You can change how this clan has been running. It's time for some big changes. Yes, yes, you can do it!_  A smile grew on Elle’s lips.

“You’re right, Nic. I believe it’s time to do some changes around here.” She smiled proudly. Nic placed his hand on her shoulder.

“That’s great! So, what do you want to do first?” He asked curiously.

Elle just smiled. “We need to gather the clan, it’s time to do what we should have done a long time ago.”

“And what is that?” He asked.

“Recruit and invade.” She smiled proudly.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sans lit his cigar and inhaled deeply. As he exhaled the red smoke slowly fell to the floor, instead of rising like normal smoke. He had a hand in his pocket and stared out on the city. The view from the top of the Amare facility wasn’t too bad, even though some of it was disturbed by the tall fence that kept anyone from getting in or out.

He took another deep inhale from his cigar. He heard familiar footsteps behind him approach. “What is it, Pap?” He asked annoyed. He had hoped he could get just a moment by himself. It had been a long day and all he wanted was to smoke his cigar, drink some delicious mustard imported to the facility by Grillby himself and then fall asleep.

Papyrus didn’t answer him until he stood right next to him. “WINGDINGS WANTS TO KNOW WHEN YOU ARE PLANNING ON INTERROGATING THE NEW PRISONER.” Papyrus was looking down at Sans.

_He can interrogate that fucking prisoner himself, if he’s in such a hurry._  Sans shrugged, not bothering to utter an answer. Papyrus crossed his arms and tapped his foot impatiently. The tapping annoyed Sans. He came up here for silence, not for Papyrus to nag him.

“Tell Dings I'll get to him first thing in the morning.” Sans took another drag from the cigar and let the smoke slowly pour out between his teeth.

Papyrus stopped his tapping. “ALRIGHT, BROTHER, JUST MAKE SURE THAT IT IS DONE AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. WINGDINGS WANTS TO BE DONE WITH HIM QUICKLY SO HE CAN FOCUS ON OTHER THINGS.” Papyrus explained. Sans looked up at him and saw the light in Papyrus’ eye was dimly lit. He was calm, something Sans wished himself was.

“I will, pap. You don’t have to worry about nothin’.” Sans grinned up to his brother. Papyrus just gave a quick nod before walking away. As soon as Papyrus was out of sight, Sans gave out a sigh.  _Finally, alone again._  He looked out on the city again.  _Wonder how things will change now, especially now that there’s no one to really fight against_ _us_ _. Only pity criminals who needs a quick beating and some solitarily in a cell for a month or two._

He saw the spotlights from Grillby’s was lighting up the sky. Tonight, was the special deal night; get two for one. After Grillby’s started with that disgusting business, he didn’t enjoy going there anymore. Anytime he would enter the place, it smelled odd. Not bad odd, just very sweet scent that lingered in the air. Sans would rather stay at home than go out to that bar. That's why he always made Grillby send a few crates with mustard so he had them when he needed them.

“M-Mr. Gaster?” It was a very light voice calling behind Sans. He groaned and turned around. He was surprised by the female standing behind him.

It was Fuku. She looked just like Grillby, except her flames were much calmer and they were emerald green. She was wearing a white dress with arms. Fuku was responsible for checking in all the prisoners and write down all their information.

She couldn’t decide between looking at Sans or at the ground. “Miss Fuku, what can I help you with?” Sans felt a little bad for groaning at Fuku, but he had a long day after all. 

“I only need some information on the latest arrival. I saw you had taken use of the room Frisk used to have.” She was speaking so low that Sans could barely hear her.

“All you need to know is that his name is John and he won’t stay here too long.” Sans explained. Fuku nodded and they now stood there in silence. “Was there anything else?” He asked impatiently. Sans just wanted to get to his room at this point.

It seemed like everyone knew he was standing up here. Fuku jumped a little. “N-no, sir. I'll be on my way.” She scurried away and Sans was once again alone.

_Not going to take the risk of anyone disturbing me again._  He took one last inhale from the cigar before throwing it on the ground. He stepped on it and in a blink of an eye, he had teleported to his own room.

Sans walked over to his own fridge in the corner of the room. He pulled out a bottle of Grillby’s mustard, pulled the cap off and took a sip. The taste was lingering on his tongue and it felt great. He drank some more before he walked over to his bed and sat down on the edge. He loosened his tie and took another sip. The silence, the mustard and the bed were good ways of making Sans tired. In his own room he couldn’t be bothered by anyone, and if someone dared to knock on his door now, he would simply ignore them.

Sans felt himself almost drifting into sleep as he laid back and closed his eyes. “What a fucking day.” He sighed out with a smile. He drank the rest of the mustard up and threw it on the floor. He couldn’t bother to stand up and throw it in the trash. He would just do it tomorrow when he actually had to get up. He placed both his hands behind his head and took a deep breath.

In his mind he could see Frisk stand in front of him. She was slightly smiling at him. He reached forward and tucked her hair behind her ear.  _Good night, Frisk._  Sans smiled before falling into a deep slumber.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Elle was standing where her mother once stood up against the Gaster brothers. All eyes were on her. Some was looking at her with hope and others were watching her with doubt. All she knew was that she would soon give them the news of her father.

Nic was standing slightly behind her, giving her a slight boost of confidence and security. The sun was about to rise and was barely peeking over the tall buildings. Elle cleared her throat, signalling to everyone in the room that she was ready to speak.

“Listen everyone, I have some bad news to deliver to you all.” Elle paused as she felt a knot in her stomach. She cleared her throat again, not that it was necessary, but the tangle in her belly made her uncomfortable. “My father...” She squealed. “He’s been taken by the Gaster brothers.”

As those words slipped her mouth, murmurs and whispers began to spread among the members in front of her. She stood there without saying a word, letting them talk a bit amongst themselves.

“I know this comes as a shock to you all, and you are all now left with me.” The whispers died and all eyes were back at Elle. “I have never been a leader in my life, nor will I ever be. I can never match my parents who did all they could to make this clan move forward. I don’t want this responsibility, but I have no choice now that my father too is gone. My goal for this clan is to fight for something and to make a difference. I want to help the city grow and that our work today, will make a difference for tomorrow. I know I'm not my father or my mother, I know that to most of you, I am nothing, but I believe that if we stand together, we can achieve these goals. So, I understand if anyone of you wants to leave and live a peaceful life, you may do so. I will not judge or stop you.” Elle took a pause. She noticed how her back was straighter and her head was higher than before.

Some of the members looked at each other, some were whispering and some were just looking at Elle. Suddenly a woman from the crowd stood up.

“I have been a part of this clan since your mother saved me from the streets, if it wasn’t for her or this clan, I wouldn’t be alive today. I made a promise to myself that no matter what, I would fight for this clan till the end.” The woman raised her hand to her heart and straightened up. “I will stay by your side.”

One by one, everyone stood up, placed their hand on their heart and looked at Elle. Elle felt her heart was filled with hope. Every member of the clan stood there, looking at her with faith. “For freedom.” The woman said.

“For freedom!” The crowd cheered. A smile grew on Elle’s face. She felt Nic’s hand lay on her shoulder. She looked over and he was smiling proudly at her. She grinned back and looked out on all the members. Elle placed her hand over her heart. Her chest was warm and she could feel her heart beat.

“For freedom.” She declared. “Well then, let’s get this started.” Everyone sat down on the floor as Elle took a step forward. “Before we can do anything, we need to expand our clan. With the few numbers we have, we need to grow. My goal is to contact the smaller groups that are fighting against the authority, save as many female employees from the bars and any human or monster out on the street that needs help. This clan will no longer judge the past actions that has happened, and we will now take anyone who are willing to fight for the new tomorrow. Once we have expanded our clan, we can begin to infiltrate. Get someone on the inside is important, but be careful about who you choose, we can’t just trust anyone to do that task. So, everyone split into groups and decide who you want to recruit, for those of you who will save the women from the bars, talk to Nic, he will give you some information on how to go on about that. Anthony, I will need to talk to you. Is everything clear then?” Elle saw the members started to group up in different group. Three group walked up to Nic and the rest left the room.

Anthony walked up to Elle and looked at her proudly. “You are so alike your parents.” He smiled. Elle smiled back at Anthony. They sat down by the table her parents last sat together. “So what can I help you with?” He asked.

“Anthony, I need to know about everyone we have on the inside. Everyone and everywhere.” She explained and slightly smiled. Anthony nodded and stood up.

“I have a file on everyone we have, but it’s not very thick, but it will have to do. Give me a moment and I’ll be back with it.” He walked out of the room.

Elle took a deep breath and slowly breathed out. She heard Nic talk in the background to the three groups that wanted to help the women. Elle placed her hand by her heart again. It was still warm. 

The warmth reminded her of Frisk. It was the same warmth Elle had felt whenever Frisk had hugged her tightly or when she kissed her on her head.  _I won’t let you down mother, nor will I fail you father._  Elle closed her eyes and smiled.

Elle was interrupted by a slap on the table. She opened her eyes and saw it was Anthony who had placed the file in front of her. “Here it is, Elle. It contains information on everyone we have on the inside. I must remind you that none of these people have been contacted since the loss of your mother, so step carefully when you contact them.” Anthony warned.

Elle picked up the thin file and opened it. It was just a few papers inside. It wasn’t much, but it was better than nothing. “Thank you, Anthony. I'll get to you if there’s anything else I need.” She smiled up at him. Anthony nodded and walked away again. “Let’s see what we got.” Elle looked at the first paper.

**Jeff Sobez**

**Race: Human**

**Age: 47**

**Sex: Male**

**Wealth: Rich**

**Area: Grillby’s**

**Description: Tall – Strong – Warm skin tone – Deep voice - Short brown hair – Scar on upper lip (from when he was a child) - Always wears a suit in public.**

**[Pic of upper body and head]**

****

**Canis Goddo**

**Race: Monster**

**Age: 32**

**Sex: Male**

**Wealth: Middle**

**Area: Night gate by Amare**

**Description: Medium length – Medium strength – Black fur with white markings – Light voice – Bone hanging from mouth – Suspicious to everything – Easily distracted by petting – Wears tank top and camo pants.**

**[Pic of upper body and head]**

****

**Whims Tola**

**Race: Monster**

**Age: Unknown**

**Sex: Unknown**

**Wealth: Unknown**

**Area: Day gate by royal family estate**

**Description: Short – Weak – White skin – Very light voice – Thick antennae on head – Always wears armour – Double bladed spear – Wings.**

**[Pic of whole body and head]**

Elle put down the paper. “This isn’t too bad; three different locations are nice. Nic, come here.” Elle waved Nic over.

He sat down next to her and she handed him the papers. “We have three different people to go to and three different locations. I myself will go to Mr. Sobez, since I don’t know what he thinks of monsters. If you can go seek out Mr. Goddo, then we can get someone to go to Tola last. Perhaps when his shift is ending or something.” Elle felt excitement.

“Hmm, yeah, that can work. How do you plan on reaching Jeff? Is there a number to call or something?” Nic asked and turned the papers over, looking for a number to call.

“I don’t think so, so I'll just have to wait by Grillby’s bar and then reach out to him if he passes me.” Elle explained. Nic looked at her with displeased eyes.

“Is that such a good idea? What if you get caught?” Nic asked worried. He laid down the papers and turned to Elle.

Elle hadn’t really thought of that. She would be very exposed when she’s just standing on the ground by the bar. What is someone mistakes her for one of the working girls in there. Elle shivered. “You’re right, I'll talk to Anthony about that. I don’t want to think of what happens if I get caught.” Nic nodded, he seemed satisfied with the answer.

He stood up and walked towards the door. “Well, seems like we all have our hands busy then. Right now I think you’ll need some sleep before the adventure begins.” He winked at her and left the room.

He was right, Elle felt a yawn creep up on her. She stretched out and the yawn escaped her mouth. She giggled for herself before standing up. She grabbed the papers and put them back in the file. “Guess I should get to Anthony then.” She told herself. She walked out of the room and closed the door behind her. She walked down the hall to Anthony’s room. She lightly knocked on it and Anthony opened with a smile.

He let her in and they sat down by his desk. “I need to know if we have any way of contacting Jeff Sobez, it’s too dangerous if I have to expose myself on the ground.” Elle asked. She placed the file on his desk.

“Of course, I have his address if that helps.” He looked in a drawer before pulling out a small paper. He handed it to her and on it stood an address not too far away from here. “I would visit him just before the sun sets, that’s when he used to be ready before leaving for Grillby’s.” He explained.

Elle nodded. “Got it, thank you, Anthony.” She stood up and gave him a short hug. “This wouldn’t have been possible without you.” She smiled. Anthony blushed.

“Oh, I'm sure you would have found a way.” He looked down, trying to hide his blushing. Elle walked towards the door and opened it. “Good luck, Elle.” He said. Elle looked over her shoulder and gave him a warm smile. She left the room and closed the door behind her.

With the small paper in her hand, containing Jeff Sobez’s address, Elle could finally get some sleep. She walked up the stairs tirelessly and as she reached her room, she collapsed on her bed. She didn’t realise how tired she actually was. The bed felt like a cloud to lay upon. She didn’t bother to take off her clothes before wrapping the sheets around her.


	8. Mr. Jeff Sobez

Elle heard knocking on her door. It was soft thumps, three at a time. Elle fumbled out of her bed and walked over to the door. She opened it and found Nic standing there. “Hey Elle, ready to go?” Nic asked. Elle opened the door wide and stepped back. She walked to the bed and found the piece of paper she had held before she fell asleep. Nic walked into the room and looked around. “Not very tidy in here.” Nic commented. Elle turned around and looked at him surprised. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to be rude.”

Elle giggled. “It’s ok, I know it’s a bit of a mess in here, I just can’t make myself clean up. Guess I'm too lazy.” She laughed and walked towards the door. Nic stepped out of the room first and Elle closed the door behind them. “So, have you slept some?” Elle asked as they walked up the stairs to get to the roof.

“No, was busy talking with the other’s in the clan. They were a bit worried about the clubs, but I told them what I had done in the past. They're a bit anxious about going in, so I told them to do a briefing with me once they have enough information.” He explained.

Both Nic and Elle knew that one wrong step would put them in the spotlight again by the Gaster brothers. They had to have a solid plan if they were going in to action.

“How do you think it will be to meet Mr. Sobez? Think he’ll help?” Nic asked and they looked at each other.

Elle wasn’t quite sure. The worst outcome would be that he wasn’t longer willing to help them out and he would tell the Gaster brothers about her. Who knows what will happen then. She just had to thread carefully when she was going to meet him. “I think I'll be fine.” She lied. She didn’t want to make Nic worry, so she pretended that everything was ok. “Anthony told me he had been in contact with him throughout these years, so I should be okay.”

Nic smiled when she said that. He swallowed the lie whole, which calmed Elle for some reason. Now she didn’t have to worry about Nic trying to talk her out of meeting the man. She knew that Nic would prefer to do everything himself, so she didn’t have to put herself in a dangerous spot, but things had to happen now, not tomorrow.

They finally reached the roof and that was where they had to split up. This was the moment she would for the first time be alone. No one to help her out, no one to back her up and no one to run to. She didn’t even know how Sobez would react, or if he would even be there. The thought of this both excited and frightened Elle.

“Think you’re up for this?” Nic asked. Elle crossed her arm. She wasn’t a baby. Nic smirked when Elle looked at him with an angry look. “Chill, Elle, I'm kidding with you, of course you’re ready.” he walked closer to her and gave her a hug. “Just be careful, ok?” He took a step back.

Elle gave him a half smile. “I will, nothing to worry about.” He placed a hand on her shoulder. “I’ll be fine, Nic. I’ll see you tomorrow.” She smiled wider.

“Alright, Elle. Stay safe.” He said and took a step back. Elle nodded and Nic started to walk away. Elle stood there and watched Nic disappear in the distance.

 _Time to get working._  Elle turned around and started to make her way across the building roofs. The sun was going to set soon. The sky was on fire. The sight reminded Elle of the first time she and her friends Christer and Emma was at the roof together.

They had brought a blanket and a basket filled with snacks, fruits and some wine Emma had recommended. They were telling each other stories of what they hoped life would be like when all of it was over. How Christer was going to be a movie star and Emma would be a doctor, specialising on monsters. Elle had told them she always wanted to become a guard for the human king and queen, but it was a lie. She wanted to tell them, but she was afraid they would only laugh at her. Her deepest wish was to leave the city and live on a farm by herself. She thought the idea seemed foolish, since she knew no one who would do the same.

Elle stood at the edge of a building and saw the house Jeff Sobez was supposed to live in. She was a bit nervous to go down the building and knock on his door, but that’s what she was here for. Her gut didn’t give her a bad feeling, so she had to just get down there. She made her way to the back alley of the building using the fire escape.

She landed on the ground with a soft thump. She looked both sides of the street, making sure there weren’t anyone around. She crossed the street and walked up to the house. She took a deep breath before knocking on the door.  _Please, don’t be a bad guy._  Elle thought to herself.

The door opened and a tall man stood in front of Elle. He was staring down at Elle before a smile grew on his lips. “Frisk! You're alive!” The man lifted Elle up in a swift move and hugged her tightly. Elle was frozen, shocked at how he had reacted. She understood why he thought she was Frisk, they looked very similar.

He let go of her inside the house and locked the door behind them. “Frisk! It’s so good to see you again! I haven’t heard form you in years. Have you been busy trying to stay low from the Gaster brothers? I understand why, they can be very sly, especially the oldest one. And I've seen you let your hair grow as well, good choice if you want to change your appearance, but maybe try to change the colour as well? Anyway, doesn’t matter now, you’re here! I'm glad you’re finally here! After you were first taken by the Gaster brothers, I didn’t hear anything from the clan. I was afraid you had just kicked me away. I was even worried the Gaster brothers would come for me, but you didn't give them anything, now did you? Of course not, you’re the strongest woman I've ever met, and no one will ever be stronger than you either. By the way, what happened to John? And of course, your sweet daughter? Did you lose them both during the raid? Please tell me you didn’t lose them both.” He was talking so fast Elle didn’t really know when to cut in and tell him who she truly was.

Elle took a step back and let him just look at him. Perhaps he would see that she wasn’t Frisk, but rather her daughter. She didn’t really want to say it herself, since just the way he had greeted her, Elle knew that they had been very close.

Jeff’s shoulders dropped and he was swept in sorrow. “You’re not Frisk, are you?” He asked and Elle shook her head in response. “Who are you? Some imposter?”

“No, I'm her daughter.” Elle answered. His eyes widened in surprise. “I survived thanks to my mother, but she is gone, and so is my father now as well.” She explained.

“Your father as well? What has happened?” He asked. He walked past her and she followed him. They walked to his living room which was probably the biggest living room Elle had ever been in. One wall was just covered in books of all sizes and colours. He sat down in one of the chairs and Elle found a spot in the sofa.

“My father was taken yesterday by the Gaster brothers. He was taken because he saved my friend, Nic.” Elle explained. Jeff was simply nodding along. “Before he sacrificed himself, he said I was the new leader of the clan. I never liked the way my father chose to lead the clan, it was so cowardly. Only hiding in the shadows, never doing anything to make a change. That’s where I want to be different. I don’t want to wait for a change, I want to make that change. That's why I'm here. I heard you can get me into Grillby’s.”

Jeff looked at her confused. “Grillby’s? What do you want there?” He asked and leaned a bit forward.

“Well, I need to recruit and I need info. I figured the girls working there had something to say, and I also believe they want to be saved from everything they do at that bar. I can’t imagine how horrible it is there.” Elle said and found herself too was leaning forward.

“I can tell you this Elle, those girls don’t mind working for Grillby’s, and here’s why. They are the most respectable women to ever enter and exit that bar. Their work might seem dirty, but they are paid really good for their job and they all have their own apartments in the Golden Tower. Trust me, they don’t need saving.” Jeff explained. “But I believe they are sitting on a lot of information. I know many of Grillby’s high paying customers easily talk about anything when they get a few drinks in them. So, info isn’t hard to get. All you need is to ask, and they will help you out. They might get paid well, but they dislike the new regime as much as we do. The betrayal those monsters showed when they overthrew the human royals was probably the most disgusting thing to ever happen. They might work for the monsters, but their hearts lie with us.” Elle felt a smile grew on her face. This would make things a lot easier now that she knew all of them would hopefully help her. “So, my question to you is; what do you need help with?”

“Well, I need a way to get close to the Gaster brothers without being suspicious. I have to find a way to take them down before even thinking of getting close to the royal family. They must have some weaknesses.” She said and stood up. She started to walk around in the room without even thinking of it.

“Hard to say, but I know a way of getting close to them. In a few days, the flower celebration will take place and I happen to be invited to it. I know the Gaster brothers attend it every year, so that’s a golden opportunity to maybe even have a talk with one of them. You also get a glimpse on the inside of the royals' home, which I believe will come quite in handy. So, if you like, I can take you with me.” He smiled to Elle.

Elle found herself surprised. She couldn’t understand why her father had never sought this man out. Just the few minutes she had been with him, he had given her more help and information her father had ever found himself. She smiled back at Jeff.

“I would love it if you take me with you, but I think I have to do something to change my appearance, or else I fear the Gaster brothers might see who I am.” She said and sat down in the couch again.

“Well, I think a change of your hair and eye colour might help.” He grinned. “I think I might be able to help you out there, just give me a moment.” He stood up and left the room.

Elle stood up herself and looked around. A picture on the side table caught her eye. She picked it up and stared at it. It looked like her mother when she was a teenager, and it was a male she guessed was Jeff and a monster goat. They were all smiling and seemed very happy. Elle found herself smiling at the picture. She put it down and walked over to the bookcases. Some of the books were about humans and others about monsters. Most of them were history books, but sometimes now and then, a children’s story book would pop up.

Elle took out one of the history books about both monsters and humans. She went to the front page.

**Long ago, two races ruled the Earth: HUMAND and MONSTERS.**

**One day, war broke out between the two races. After a long battle, the humans were victorious.**

**They sealed the** **monsters** **underground with a** **magic** **spell.**

**Legends say that those who climb mount** **Ebott** **never returned.**

Elle flicked a few pages forward.

**The power to take their SOULs.**

**This is the power that the humans feared.**

**This power has no** **counter** **.**

**Indeed, a human cannot take a** **monster’s** **SOUL** **.**

**When a monster dies, its SOUL disappears.**

**And an incredible power would be needed to take the SOUL of a living monster.**

**There is only one exception.**

**The SOUL of a special species of monster called a “Boss Monster.”**

**A Boss** **Monster’s** **SOUL is strong enough to persist after death...**

**If only for a few moments.**

**A human could absorb this SOUL.**

**But this has never happened.**

**And now it never will.**

Elle flicked some more pages, intrigued to read more.

**The humans, afraid of our power, declared was on us.**

**They attacked suddenly, and without mercy.**

**In the end, it could hardly be called a war.**

**United, the humans were too powerful, and us monsters, too weak.**

**Not a single SOUL was taken, and countless monsters were turned to dust...**

**Hurt, beaten, and fearful for our lives, we surrendered to the humans.**

**Seven of their greatest magicians sealed us underground with a magic spell.**

**Anything can enter through the seal, but only beings with a powerful SOUL can leave.**

**There is only one way to reverse this spell.**

**If a huge power, equivalent to seven human SOULs, attacks the barrier...**

**It will be destroyed.**

**But this cursed place had no entrance or exits.**

**There is no way a human could come here.**

**We will remain trapped down here forever.**

**However** **...**

**There is a prophecy.**

**The Angel...**

**The One Who Has Seen** **The** **Surface...**

**They will return.**

**And the underground will go empty.**

Elle closed the book and looked at the cover. The book was completely black, except for the white script written on the cover.

**The tale of the Under**

“Find anything interesting?” Jeff asked. Elle jumped a little and she quickly placed the book back and turned to him. She was surprised when she saw the long blonde wig and a small box in his hands. Elle walked over to him and he handed her the wig. “This should help you out. Make a long braid and put these blue lenses on, no one will recognise you.” He winked at her. Elle couldn’t help but smile. “Here, let me help you put it on.”

Jeff was braiding her hair after putting the wig on. Elle was trying her best to put on the lenses, but it was hard. She had never used lenses before, but Jeff had given her a couple of tricks to make it easier. It was weird to have the wig being braided, and not her actual hair. “There we go, the hair is done.”

Jeff stood up and looked at her form the front. He smiled when he looked at her. “You look absolutely stunning, dear. I can’t even recognise you now.” He giggled. Elle had finally gotten the lenses in. Her eyes were a little read and watery. “Are you ready for a trip to Grillby’s?” He asked.

“Yes, I think so.” She said and stood up. She walked over to the mirror in the hallway and looked at herself. Jeff was right, she couldn’t understand that was her. The braid went to her hips, and it seemed weird to have so long hair, but she actually liked it.

Jeff stood behind her and had placed his hand on her shoulders. “Let’s get going then.” He smiled and opened the front door. Elle glanced at Jeff before they left the house.


End file.
